Otari-Wilton's Bush

Otari-Wiltons Bush is a native botanical garden located just 5km from Wellingtons CBD, it has 5 hectares of botanic gardens dedicated to the collection and preservation of New Zealand's native plants.

There is also 100 hectares of ancient and regenerating native forest. Among this you will see beautiful 800 year old Rimu, stuffing picnic areas, 11 kms of walking tracks including some to waterfalls in the reserve.
Their are many different walking tracks in the reserve all of vary lengths and ability, you can grab a map at the gate or the information center in the reserve.
But if you wanted to do a bit of a plan ahead they have some great information on their website in the helpful links below.
We unfortunately did not pick the sunniest of days to head out and explore, but neither the less a little rain did not stop us from going and checking out a small part of the garden in search of a Kiwi Guardian Post.
We grabbed a map from the wee information spot they had and headed on in over the wee canopy walk they had and went to explore.

We strolled through the botanical garden checking out all the different native plants, following the neat wee interactive signs around the place.
It wasn't long before we had wound our way down to a beautiful large picnic area.
One of the good things was that there was some shelter at the picnic area which we sat had a snack and waited out a wee rain fall in.
Add bonus is we found the Kiwi Guardian post there as well!!
This spot would be amazing in summer to have a wee picnic, there is a wee stream right next to it which kids would love to explore.
We carried on around exploring a few small tracks checking out some wee waterfalls, even though it was wet it was still beautiful.

The ground was a bit slippery due to the rain but we were very impressed how well kept and loved the tracks were. We were also impressed how many people were out despite the rain. Heaps of people were walking or running through the bush it was fantastic to see.
When then headed back out towards the way we came in to check out another area we had seen with come neat displays paths.
There were so many areas you could explore it was hard to know where to start at.
We really enjoyed seeing the small part we could in the rain, this is definitely a spot to try and visit on a nice day so you can really enjoy all it has to offer.

I would love to come back in the summer and bring a picnic for the day to explore all the wee areas of the reserve.
Parts of the bush walks that we did you could easily take a pram on but there were a few spots you might get a bit stuck if it was wet. My suggestion would be to try take a front or back pack with your small child instead if you can.
One really neat thing we found is that if you do not have a car while you are visiting Wellington this is a good spot to visit as the their is a public bus that come right from Lambton Quay in town to there which makes it a super easy spot to get to.
We will definitely be back one summer to see more of this spot, we will have to make sure we update you here with some Summer photos as well.