2015-09-22 -41 174

Location

MacAlister Park, Wellington, New Zealand

Participants

The Quaternary (talk) family geohashers

Plans

Today I was flying up to Wellington first thing in the morning, and back on the same day. As soon as I awoke, I checked the hash for the Wellington graticule, to discover that the Wellington hash was just a few hundred metres from my destination - what a gift!

Expedition

It was a cold, dreary, drizzly day in Wellington. But happily, I was with my cousin Beth. Although this of course involved having to "come out" about my geohashing hobby. And having to explain it is always a bit of a challenge. Her conclusion: "you are definitely somewhere on the spectrum". Anyway, out we went.

MacAlister Park is surrounded by the suburbs of Newtown, Berhampore and Vogeltown. While it's flat at the start, there was a bit of climbing to be done as we ascended a few tens of metres.

When we got to within about 30 metres of the hash, it became clear that the hash was in reasonably dense bush. We couldn't go over it, we couldn't go under it, we had to go through it. Obstacles included a significant amount of spike-containing plants, such as black-berry and gorse (curse those confounded colonialists). But we weren't to be perturbed! GPS location wasn't the greatest under the shrubbery, but we were confident we found we must have trampled on the spot one way or another.

As we emerged from the bush, slightly dishevelled and worse for wear, we stumbled onto a woman walking a dog. She eyed us suspiciously. It crossed my mind to explain "we're from the Internet", but I figured that could make matters worse. We passed on away from her suspicious glances as quickly as we could.

Tracklog

The Wellington graticule
Wellington city and surrounds
MacAlister Park
The hash

Photos

Looking back towards the playing fields at MacAlister Park, we start our ascent.
"Onward" cries Thomson (or was it Thompson).
With 30 metres to go we enjoy the view before going bush.
It's got to be around here somewhere, amongst all this mahoe ...
After suffering the thorns and scratches of outrageous fortune, we reach the hash!
The obligatory selfie.
Back out of the bush, view towards Wellington harbour.