I’m a real Hutt Valley Chick, so I’m more comfortable walking through Westfield Queensgate than native New Zealand bush.  Sure, I’m not an ‘outdoorsy’ type, but I was inspired to get out into the great outdoors this weekend.  Maybe the miserable Spring weather we’ve had so far has driven me to it.  We decided to give Butterfly Creek in Eastbourne a go.  We checked out the Greater Wellington website for the route – and discovered there are actually four different tracks.  One from MacKenzie Street, one from Muritai Road, one from Kowhai Street, and one from the Bus Barn near Burdans Gate.

We decided to take (what GW described as) ‘the easy option’ – Kowhai Street.  We set off just before 1pm on Saturday afternoon.  It was overcast, so ideal weather for walking.  Luckily it fined up beautifully as the afternoon progressed, so we got some stunning views of the harbour looking back at the city. 

Kowhai Street may be the shortest route, but it’s a pretty steep start!  It took us about 20 minutes to get to the ridge and then we meandered down to Butterfly Creek – which took a further 25 or so minutes.  So 45 minutes all up.  I wouldn’t recommend doing the Kowhai route on a wet day … the steep start would be very slippery and dangerous on the clay track. 

Butterfly Creek is a great weekend activity.  Especially when you’ve got a longing for lovely scenery and bird life.  It’s a great escape from the city.  Next time we’ll do the MacKenzie Road route or maybe the Bus Barn route .  They’re called ‘tramping routes’ … I’m hoping that means they’re slightly longer and less steep!   Will probably go next weekend (weather dependent) as then the walk will count towards my 10,000 steps!  The programme starts at work tomorrow.  It worries me a bit as I walked my dog today – our usual 40 minute loop – and that was only 4,500 steps!!