Once Pakeha settlement started, however, the onslaught on the forest and its inhabitants was swift and brutal. 'If it moves shoot it, if it doesn’t chop it down!' seems to have been the slogan of the time. Singled out for particular attention were birds wanted by collectors, like the huia, or those wanted for the pot like the kereru and kaka.

The kereru had been protected by law since 1864 but the law was largely ignored in the frontier atmosphere. In 1882 Buller wrote that: 'no less than 8000 kereru were snared in a single strip of miro bush. They have been consistently poached ever since.

The huia was under immense pressure, and as early as 1875 its slaughter in the Wellington area was worrying some people. In that year J. D. Eyns wrote:

The slaughter that came under my notice last year was so large, that I fear, when the country is opened up, the poor huia will become extinct a fate I shall much deplore, as anyone who has seen this most graceful bird alive can only regret that he has not oftener a chance of doing so.

I am glad to say, one inducement to its destruction is wanting, as it is reported by all who have cooked it, to be a tough morsel. I ascertained that over 600 skins were procured last year, from the back ranges of the East Coast of the Wellington Province, by the natives. I may mention, that part of the ranges had been ‘tapu’ by the natives, for the last seven years, so as to protect the huia from being killed off.

The gastronomic appeal of birds was important. William Delisle Hay, in his intriguing and quite extraordinary book, Brighter Britain, published in 1882, gives the following culinary ratings: tui are 'good eating, kuku or kereru are 'capital eating, weka 'eat like grouse', and the pukeko, which he thought had been brought to this country by theMaori, was 'fine eating'. About the only bird that Hay armed his nose up at was the kiwi which he considered indigestible:

Having eaten kiwi old and young, baked and boiled, roast and fried, I am able to state that its meat is tougher and more tasteless than barbecued boot soles ... if, as the naturalists lead us to infer, the moa was but a magnified kiwi in all respects, it is to be supposed that its flesh would be correspondingly tougher and coarser. In that case I do not see why the Maori should be blamed for turning cannibal in preference to eating it.

Pakeha settlement in the Wellington area took place some time after it began in the north and so exotic trees are not quite so well established. In addition they have had a more invigorating climate to contend with, the wind being responsible for the trees growing at such picturesque angles in the coastal areas. Despite being south of its natural range the pohutukawa does well here, with several fine specimens to be found around Wellington and in the Hutt Valley.

In the first flush of enthusiasm following settlement, hundreds of birds from sparrows to blackbirds were also imported and liberated. A more recent arrival, and perhaps the most beautiful of all our exotic birds, is found in the foothills of Wellington. This is the crimson rosella, besides which its northern relative the eastern rosella seems positively pallid. Descended from cage birds which escaped in 1963, it is now seen in pairs or small family groups, occasionally straying north to the Tararuas and other areas.

The white-eye arrived in the North Island near Wellington in 1856 only to disappear after a few months. However it returned with a vengeance in 1858 and has been here ever since. The Maori, acknowledging it as a new arrival, called it tauhou, meaning 'strange’, and it is probably the only wild bird to arrive after the Pakeha and earn itself a Maori name.

As in Auckland, there is plenty to see and do in Wellington for those with the time and transport. From Island Bay there is a nice walk around the beach to Red Rocks where fur seals 'haul out. They are not easy to see but their fishy aroma gives them away. At Oriental Bay sun worshippers now sprawl where whalers once cut up their catch, and not far away a sea elephant with the singularly inappropriate name of Blossom spent part of his vacation jammed in the doorway of the public toilet.

When the Pakeha arrived whales were found here in good numbers. In the 1840s there were a number of letters to the local newspaper complaining of the noise that right whales were making while cavorting in Port Nicholson. Apparently it was the mating season.

Before leaving Wellington, make a visit to the Otari Plant Museum in Wilton Road, Wilton, as this provides an excellent opportunity to study native plants in a confined area. To reach it turn right off the route to Karori, 400 metres before the tunnel. One section of the museum includes a good stand of native bush with kahikatea, rimu and rata. Another has a wide range of plants from coastal, montane and alpine regions, all labelled for easy identification. Native birds present include tui, fantail and white-eyes.

Another fine collection can be found in the Wellington Botanical Gardens. Here, in 26 hectares of central Wellington, are many exotic plants and trees together with a selection of natives. It makes for pleasant strolling in fine weather and is best tackled by taking the Kelburn cable car to the signposted stop and walking down to the Glenmore Street entrance.

Wellington also has many good walks. The Cannon Point Walk runs along the western edge of the Hutt Valley above Totara Park, which as the name indicates supports some large totara trees. Cannon Point itself is named for the remains of a large tree which resembled a cannon from a distance. Other vegetation includes such attractive sub-alpine species as the eyebright. The walkway is on the outskirts of Upper Hutt behind the Totara Park sub-division.

Another pleasing walk originates from Makara Beach on the west coast, 16 kilometres from the city. Makara has long been popular with Wellingtonians and as early as 1865 they were pressing authorities to construct a road through the area 'to open up a source of recreation and pleasure ... through some of the finest scenery in the province.'

This coast gets the full blast of Wellington’s famous winds, resulting in vegetation largely composed of low-lying, ground-hugging plants typified by such rugged species as pohue, mikimiki and tauhinu. The tussock grass Poa caespitosa and two normally alpine plants, the Spaniard and Raoulia hookeri with its silver-grey mats, can also be seen here.

Baring Heads, which is reached by the road which runs through Wanuiomata township and thence along the Wanuiomata River, is another pleasant excursion from the capital. Fur seals sometimes haul themselves out on to the rocks here and on fine days seabirds are often to be seen harrying the schools of fish offshore, activity which always brings to my mind James K. Baxter’s verse: