Favourite Wellington Walks: Bolton Street Cemetary

If you've been following my blog for a while you will know that as well as crafts, creepy things and Hello Kitty I really like walking. I live in the inner city and its my everyday mode of transport and I wouldn't have it any other way.

One of my favourite places to walk, when I'm not walking to or from the shops or work is the Wellington Botanical Gardens and one of my favourite places in the gardens is the Bolton Street Cemetery.

I really like cemeteries, because I really like history because I'm nerdy (I have a BA in history and politics - because I'm THAT cool).

At the entrance of the cemetery is a memorial/gave to Richard Seddon (or as he was known "King Dick"), he was and still is the longest serving Prime Minister of New Zealand (although he wasn't officially a Prime Minister until 1901, before that we had a Premier).

King Dick's gave is the most impressive in the cemetery, although there are also quite a few other incredible gravestones.

 Harry Holland is another fairly important person in New Zealand Politics, he was the second leader of the New Zealand Labour party - the inscription reads "He devoted his life to free the world from unhappiness, tyranny and oppression".

The cemetery looks out over Thorndon, one of the older suburbs in the city - which I guess is ironic in a way as many of the early settlers (and Maori who lived in Wellington around this time)  are buried in the cemetery.

Another important figure in New Zealand history Samuel Parnell, his grave stone may be less impressive - but I'm pretty thankful for this guy - like it says below "father of the eight hour day". Thank you Mr Parnell.

It may be a bit weird, or a bit creepy - or both weird and creepy....but I really love some of the elaborate headstones in this place. This one with the love hearts and tiles really appeals to me for some reason.

The cemetery has lots of different paths, some are a lot clear than others. Although we have lived here for over ten years now (yikes) we only recently explored a "new to us" path.

 If you're thinking right now, those headstones are awfully close to those trees, that's pretty weird there is a good and pretty sad reason for that - in the 1970's the cemetery found itself in the way of a new motorway and the motorway won. Many of the graves from the original cemetery were dug up and the bodies were put in one big plot. The head stones wouldn't all fit around this one plot so they have been placed in various spots of the remaining cemetery. The whole thing make me incredibly sad if I think about it too much - the same thing would never happen today, but its pretty horrible nonetheless. 

 

At the end of the path there is an area with a bunch more head stones - including this one, with its fancy tiling.

This area also had a view of the city, the tall buildings you can see are mostly government offices, hotels or apartments.

I will finish off with a few more random photos I took on the day of this walk - doe you have any favourite walking spots?

Lets skip autumn and head straight to winter

The last couple weeks in Wellington (and over most of New Zealand it seems) have been less than great, it does seem we have forgotten about autumn entirely and headed straight to winter. 

However, last weekend Rich and I decided to brave the cold and head out for a walk in Wellington botanical gardens as it had been a while since we visited. We decide to take one of our typical walks - up to the gardens via cable car, take a walk to the gardens and return to the city via the cemetery.

Recently the "station" at the top of the cable car was revamped - now you can admire the city from the warmth of the inside of the station (as well as out in the cold - obviously).

It's important to always wear appropriate footwear when walking - actually I bought these flats from avon and they are amazingly comfortable. 

 Some of the flowers were dying off as the colder months approach (or have perhaps already here), but I think they still look so beautiful.

 The succulents and cacti will always be some of my favourites - that cactus looks like it has eyes!

 There are a few entries into the gardens - this is obviously my favourite!

There is an old phonebooth near the entry to the gardens, I always wonder why the council doesn't do something with it. The could get some local artist to paint it and make it beautiful (any remnants of an actual phone are LONG gone, its just an old wooden booth). When I walked past this time I did notice a little bit of street art inside. 

Next we headed up to the rose gardens - the roses are now dying due to the colder weather, but many of them are still so pretty. I still think flowers can look pretty when they are clearly "one their way out...."

We stopped off at the glass house at the gardens for two reasons - its a great place to warm up on a cold day and also because some of the most interesting and beautiful flowers are in the glasshouse (well in my humble opinion).

Obviously if you're in the glass house you have to check out the begonias next door! 

 Finally we made it home through the Bolton Street Cemetery - which is one of the most interesting place in Wellington in my opinion. New Zealand is such a new country, we don't have much "history" really - so when I do find somewhere with some history which interests me I kind of want to learn everything about this. 

The chap buried here in particular I always find so interesting -  Sir Richard Seddon (also known as King Dick) was the New Zealand Premier (Prime Minister) from 1893 - 1907 (he remains the longest serving Prime Minister in our history) you can read more about him here if you're as geeky as me.

 There are a few old wooden grave stones in the cemetery - all the information about the person here has disappeared.

This part always fascinates me too - in the 1960s the council decided a new motorway was required, which would run right through the cemetery and accordingly they moved a whole bunch of the graves to accommodate the new motorway which opened in 1978. It has always seemed so sad to me, people moved from their final resting place to make way for a motorway. Some of the people that were moved from the area which became motorway were buried here in a mass grave. I don't think this is something that would ever happen now in New Zealand, but its always been such a sad tale. But I guess "that's progress" right?

Well its now Easter holidays here (four day weekend!) I'm excited to mostly have some downtime and catch up with a few friends. Have a fun Easter - whatever you may be doing.

Bolton Street Cemetery Walk

A couple of weekends ago Rich and took a guided tour of the Bolton Street Cemetery, which is the burial ground of many of the original residents of Wellington city. It's been closed for many years (since the 1960's) and a motorway has been built through the middle of the cemetery (they had to move a whole bunch of graves and there is a mass burial plot for those that had to be moved) and it is an incredibly interesting place for a history geek like me.





The oldest house in Wellington is also in the park - it's now used as a residency for artists. I think its actually the oldest surviving house in Wellington, there were a couple of fairly major earthquakes in the city in the late 1800's in which I am sure lots of buildings were destroyed.