FIND THESE STEPS – Between 188 and 182 Lambton Quay opposite Midland Park and at 97 The Terrace opposite The Wellington Club.

Mr Irvine-Smith records that the first school was established by George Macmorran (a ‘kindly pedagogue’) at the corner of Woodward Street and Lambton Quay in 1840 when the location was known as Kumototo Corner. The sea at that time was at the door of the brick school.

Ms Irvine-Smith describes a very different street to the present:

‘Purling by was the Kumutoto Stream, long since covered in, running down Woodward Street, where the boys at dinner-time caught eels and bullies’ (The Streets of My City at page 39).

The street was named for Jonas Woodward who arrived in 1840 on the ‘Bolton’, and he was a leader of the temperance movement. (The Astoria cafe and bar is across the street).

Now the Druids Chambers buildings is on the corner, built in 1925, for a Masonic order.(Michael Kelly, Heritage Trail, Wellington City Council, 2005)

The Spinning Top sits on the site of a turntable used by motorists in the 1970s to turn around their cars. (The Wellingtonian, 17/01/2014)

Just a glimpse in the upper right of the sign of the now-closed Beujolaise wine bar. One of the best. Gone.

At the top of the steps on The Terrace.

Another route from the top of Woodward Street,  below, through the tunnel with the sound of native birds heard before all the buildings arrived.

At the top of the Woodward Street steps, the Terrace Pohutukawa – City Council required The Wellington Club to build around the tree and not destroy it.

Below, Woodward Street in February 1956, with a view of Druids’ Chambers, a Masonic order known as The United Ancient Druid’s Lodge in 1879. This building was built between 1924 – 1925.

Looking up Woodward Street from Lambton Quay, Wellington. Evening Post. (Newspaper. 1865 – 2002): Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref. PAColl-7796-90. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand./ records/22358559. Paperspast, National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga O Aotearoa)

Find these steps – Off Camborne Way, which is a foot path along the boat sheds, and is itself off Pascoe Avenue, on Highway One.

Find these steps – Near Te Whaea, The New Zealand School of Dance, on Wallace Street (the Southern end of Taranaki Street), at 116 Wallace Street. Carrington Street is between 69 and 71 Wright Street.

Just a short set of steps on one side and a sloping footpath on the other.

On the opposite side of Wallace Street.

The wall has become a feast of murals.

And along the top of the Wallace steps, on the footpath, are the steps to Carrington Streets.

At the top, and below, across Wallace Street, the little pathway zigzag to Carrington Street.

Find these steps –  The bottom begins at the Zealandia ‘overflow’ car park, and at the top from either the very end of Ponsonby Road or from the end of Espin Crescent, in Karori.

The Birdwood Street is named for Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, Commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army in World War One; several streets in this area of Karori commemorate events and people from the war. It was formerly Evelyn Street, named for the daughter of the local Vicar.

It is quite a hike going up  – 101 steps from the car park to Espin Crescent, and an additional 120 steps from there, with, thankfully, stretches of paths between sets of stairs.

From Ponsonby

Paths into the bush along the way.

The fresh paint on the railings and the well maintained steps reflect the care of Wellington City Council for the paths and stairways.

At the entrance from the Zealandia overflow car park.

At the entry from Espin Crescent.

At the intersection with the steps and path from Ponsonby.

FIND THESE STEPS – Off Bowen Street, on the left just before Tinakori Road, up from Parliament. At the top near Kinross Street beside Anderson Park in the Botanic Garden.

The sign post on Bowen Street.

The view from the top looking out toward Thorndon.

The entrance at the top near Kinross Street.

Anderson Park and the Botanic Garden; the shadow on the right is the Collegians Cricket Club.

Again at the top, with Seddon Memorial at the car park.

Richard Seddon was the 15th New Zealand Premier, and died in office in 1906; he had entered the House of Parliament in 1879.

Entrance to the Bolton Street Cemetery,

The memorial to the Labour Party leader, Henry Holland, who led the party from 1919 until his death in 1933. Michael Joseph Savage became leader on Holland’s death, and went on to become the first Labour Prime Minister in 1936. The memorial statue is by Auckland sculptor Richard Gross, and it was placed there in 1937. The figure carries flowers and fruit.

Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, describes the memorial:

‘The nude male figure represents emancipated youth, looking upwards to higher things. Beneath are two figures, one male, the other female, which symbolise primitive humanity struggling out of the primeval slime.’