Daily Photo – Kaitoke Regional Park

Kaitoke Regional Park is a beautiful spot – 2,860 hectares of native bush tucked into the foothills of the Tararua Ranges, with the Hutt River slicing a deep, dramatic gorge through the middle of it. Here, the forest feels ancient, with tall rimu and beech trees, tangles of rātā and fern with everything damp, green, and quietly humming with life.

Long before anyone was driving up here for a picnic or a stroll, local Māori used these valleys as travel routes between the Wairarapa and Wellington. That was, of course, until the Europeans turned up with saws and plans, cutting their way through much of it to open a road or two after 1856. Luckily, it only took about ninety years for someone to find the good sense to stop. From 1939 onwards, land was gradually bought back to protect the city’s water supply, and by the 1950s people were coming for swims instead of timber.

It officially became Kaitoke Regional Park in 1983, and today it’s exactly the sort of place you go to forget you live near a capital city – at least for a few minutes. Stand there long enough and you can still sense the history in the place, the feeling of movement threading its way through the bush.