This article was published in Tararua Tramper October 2025
Mt Crawford/Mātai Moana* – Shelly Bay.
E - Sunday 17 August We enjoyed a perfect sunny and windless day for our tramp in what should become a Wellington City Council park, or a regional park.
Our party of seven arrived at the former Wellington Prison – a.k.a. ‘Mt Crawford’ - by No. 24 Miramar Heights bus and by car. The prison opened in 1927 and closed in 2012.
We admired the Miramar Community Gardens on the site of the former prison garden. Features here are the numerous raised beds on which vegetables are grown by the lessees of the beds. The famous former pig-like log is showing its age, as are the sculptures made of a blend of cow dung and soil, coated with lime to slow the weathering process. The stone walls, steps and fountain built by prisoners are ageing well and add to the fascination of the site.
The literal high point of our trip was Mt. Crawford / Mātai Moana - 163 m. Another high point was that we did not hear any jet aircraft all day - only a few light planes. We descended past a large steel reservoir painted with beautiful artwork to cross a fence opposite the prison's former Administration Block. The reservoir once provided the prison water supply and possibly the former RNZAF base at Shelly Bay.
Our lunch spot was just north of the WW2 anti-aircraft battery up the spur from Massey Memorial. We lounged on the grass in the sun, chatting and munching our lunches. There was no activity on our harbour - Te Whanganui a Tara - except for a lone Eastbourne ferry.
We passed the large, flat grassed site used for filming some Lord of the Rings films. Before that it was the site of the Women's Reformatory and Prison Officers' Training School. We strode down the road in pine forest with a flourishing native understorey. Beside the road are ten double-walled munitions bunkers built in WW2 to store shells and mines. Sadly they have all been tagged by people with no interest in our history – even the number on each bunker has been obliterated.
Our final foray was north along Shelly Bay Road to the busy Chocolate Fish Café to reward ourselves with cuppas and cakes while seated in the sun.
- Mātai Moana means ‘gaze at the sea intently’.
Chris Horne (leader), Judy Alexander, Diana Barnes, Alan Benge, Michele Dickson, Dianne Lee, Alan Wright.