Kaitoke Regional Park

One of the most beautiful ares of original native bush near Wellington. A popular place to picnic, camp, walk, or swim in the river. Try the white water in the Hutt Gorge for rafting, kayaking or tubing. The Gorge trip takes 3-6 hours so be sure to start early on the day. High flows in the river can give rise to Grade 3+ rapids. Four walks, ranging from 20 minutes return to 6 hours return, begin near the car park at the Pakuratahi-Hutt forks.

The park is the source of much of Wellington's water.

Hidden at the base of the Tararua ranges, just 45 minutes north of Wel-lington on State Highway 2, lies Kaitoke Regional Park. A favoured destination for campers, hikers, swimmers and day-trippers, Kaitoke also has the unique distinction of being the collection site for almost half of greater Wellington’s drinking water. The area was important to early European settlers for logging and farm supplies. If you know where to look, logging tramways and long-since abandoned machinery can still be found in the park today.

The rainwater that flows down the Tararua range to form the Hutt river led the government to identify the area as a potential water collection site and, in 1939, bought it for this purpose. There’s nothing quite like a world war, however, to hinder develop- ment. Shortages of labour and steel made slow work of building the weir, or low dam, that would hold back the water. Construction was also hazardous. Working in a narrow gorge, there was no room to build a bypass to divert the river; flash floods would often destroy weeks of work. Over-schedule and over-budget, the new weir and treatment plant were completed in 1954, nine years after the war’s end. The weir successfully raised the water level upstream by four metres. Treatment in those days meant removing twigs, leaves and sediment by straining the water through large drum shaped sieves.

Upper Hutt was the first city to receive Kaitoke’s water and, over the next three years, pipelines were extended right through the Hutt Valley, over Haywards Hill to include Tawa, Porirua, Johnsonville and Karori. The water flow is aided by a sloping landscape and from 1954 to 1971, it flowed all the way from Kaitoke to Karori (some 50km) by gravity alone. With increasing demand, however, it was necessary to install pumping stations to boost the flow. Now, on an average day, Kaitoke supplies about 150 million litres of high quality water to the people of Wellington. That’s equal to about four bathtubs-full per person. The entire collection area is safeguarded by the Department of Conser- vation to ensure the water quality stays at its present high level.

The forest is carefully managed, animal numbers are controlled and access is restricted. Downstream of the collection point, however, is another story. Here, the public are welcome to come and enjoy the park. Take a walk or a hike through beautiful indigenous rainforest, or take a dip in the serene river pools. Have a picnic or set up camp along the river terraces. Lord of the Rings fans will enjoy visiting the delightful spot used as the set for Rivendell in the epic movie trilogy. For the more adventurous, the Hutt River gorge is also popular for white water rafting and kayaking. Whichever recreational activities you choose to enjoy, make sure you take ten minutes out of your day in Kaitoke Park to visit the intake weir.

Watch the water surge past as it begins its long journey to the homes, offices, shops and factories of the Wellington region and spare a thought for the decades of work it took to make it possible.