The best walk home in the world (part 2)

A little further on from Greta Point I skirt around the edge of Cog Park for views back to the pier, across to moored boats, and ahead to the small Hataitai Beach and boatsheds.

Boats moored near Haitaitai Beach

I usually cut through the local yacht and boating club carpark – or judging by the majority of items, the boats-on-trailers park. Some days the wind whistles through the masts, an unnerving sound. Past the Coastguard depot and marina, then up the bank and hang a left onto Cobham Drive.

Evans Bay Marina

This is the main thoroughfare to the airport so gets a lot of traffic. At intervals along the side of the road are arty sculptures honouring Wellington’s creative heart and the element it is (in)famous for: wind. The shortcut through the marina bypasses the ‘wind needle’ but up ahead along the curving path are three stacks of giant rotating cubes.

The Urban Forest wind sculpture

This flat land connecting Miramar peninsula with Wellington was raised up by an earthquake a few centures ago.

The path I usually take goes from paved to gravel to dirt to low-elevation goat track. The newest wind sculpture, and I think the most interesting, is next. With birdlike qualities these cones on poles swivel with the wind and when there’s enough wind they whistle and light up. Pretty cool.

The Akau Tangi (Maori name for Evans Bay) wind sculpture

Further on past another sculpture is the north end of the Wellington airport runway and planes will often be low overhead as I walk by. The road forks here, past a roundabout featuring the fifth and final arty thing. When walking I veer left to go through the Miramar cutting away from the water which signals there’s not long to go now on the best walk home in the world.

The only black plane in the Air NZ fleet (marking Air NZ's sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup) coming in to land