Join geological expert Hamish Campbell for a fun and fascinating 2-hour walk through the Wellington CBD, where we’ll learn about geologically significant sites along the way!
Starting at Te Papa, Hamish will tell us about the Dolomite stone used to build Te Papa – find out why it’s known as the ‘cheese of the rock world’. Then we’ll take a walk through the city, learning about the topography, landscape and old shorelines, and the 1855 earthquake impact on these. We’ll make our way to the Railway Station and then on to Parliament, where we will look at monuments and sculptures in the garden and consider their origins.
Joining us as a guide for this tour is architectural historian Liz Aston, who will take us through architectural aspects of the buildings, and who designed them.
We will stop for coffee/tea and snacks about halfway along this walking tour.
Please wear comfortable walking shoes, and bring water, sunblock and a jacket.
Hamish Campbell is a Wellington-based geologist, paleontologist and science communicator, and is an Emeritus Scientist with GNS Science. He was a geologist at Te Papa for 20 years (1998-2019) and will be known to many Friends of Te Papa for his role leading annual excursions to the Chatham Islands, and more recently Kaikoura, Golden Bay and New Caledonia. He is still actively involved in research and is especially interested in the origin of the older rocks of NZ.
Image Credit: Phillip Capper, Central Wellington and the western suburbs, 10 August 2005.