Government House to host upcoming Sport Wellington Buggy Walk

Hundreds of buggies are set to stroll through Government House on Thursday 3rd July for Sport Wellington’s monthly Buggy Walk.

Buggy Walks are a free event occurring on the first Thursday of every month. The walks take place at a different location every month and aim to provide parents and caregivers with the opportunity to discover some of the many buggy friendly walking tracks throughout the Wellington region.

This month’s walk will take place at the prestigious Government House, Wellington. While access is generally limited to pre arranged tours, buggy walkers are invited inside the gates to stroll through the grounds endorsed as a ‘Garden of National Significance’ which cover a total of 12 hectares. Some of the walk will take place on the flat gardens before venturing up the picturesque shrubbery lined hillside.

Built in 1908-1910, the grounds have a rich history and include several heritage features. Plaques mark trees planted by some of its more renowned guests including the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the late Maori Queen, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, and former Governors-General and their spouses. It also has significance as a named Maori site known as Kaipapa and was the former site of the Mt View Lunatic Asylum. A remnant from that era known as "Convict's Wall" is featured inside the grounds.

Event organiser, Tania Atkinson of Sport Wellington says the past few walks have been a huge success and are growing in popularity each month with over 320 parents, caregivers and children in attendance at the June walk in Petone. “Our last walk was the biggest yet, with a mixture of familiar faces and first timers. It’s really great to see more and more people keen to come along and get active with their young ones” adds Atkinson.

Atkinson says she is especially looking forward to the Government House walk, “it’s a rare opportunity to check out the grounds that play host to a number of Wellington’s exclusive visitors and the walking track is great, it’s usually one of our more popular walks.”

The walks vary in length and difficulty but will usually take 45 – 60 minutes to complete. With no registration necessary, everyone is encouraged just to show up and take part. Participants can also take advantage of free Caffé L’affare coffee and a BBQ, courtesy of Southern Cross.

To find out more visit www.buggywalk.co.nz.

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Start time: Meet from 10am for a 10.30am start. Duration is approximately 1 hour.

How to get there: Head along Adelaide Road towards Newtown. Turn into Hospital Road and follow this around and up the hill. On the left is the entrance to Government House.

Meet: On the entrance lawn, inside the Hospital Road entrance.

Parking: There will be parking inside the grounds (around 50-60 parks), but we do encourage people to car pool or use public transport, as we can't guarantee there will be enough parks for everyone. Just down from the entrance to Government House (on the street and in the public car parking areas) is pay and display parking starting at $3.00 for one hour, $5.00 for two hours.

In the case of bad weather, please check the Buggy Walk website, www.buggywalk.co.nz, or Facebook page, Wellington Buggy Walks, from 8.30am on the day of the walk.

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