Fourth hill

[landingtree]

Mount Albert again, though I always think of this part as a different hill because of the road that runs over the saddle between the areas. Apparently it is in Melrose, a suburb I did not know I lived right next to - Wellington is always having these tiny hillside suburbs. I walk up the ridge from my house to that road, then turn right instead of left and end up at the brick and concrete mausoleum of Truby King, which is appealingly ramshackle, presumably due to earthquakes, its stair-steps crooked, some of its walls cracked, and associated structures fenced off entirely. From what little I know of Truby King - advocate for the scientific regularization of baby care, the Race marches forward on the feet of Little Children - this seems somewhat fitting. (Am I going to visit any memorials to people I really want memorialised? Not if I go to Mount Victoria next, the Wakefields are up there). Then on through the carpark and down this pine-covered slope towards my choice of steep, less steep, or I-will-certainly-fall-over routes back home.

Comments

[leaflemming]

But have you discovered the I-will-fall-twenty-feet-and-then-a-mountain-bike-will-hit-me-in-the-back route? (I have only walked up it. It was a startling experience).

[landingtree]

I think that may be the I-will-certainly-fall-over route, if it's the one that opens behind the tennis court? I've been both up and down that one, but not recently; on the night of the blood moon I set off to go down it and discovered that I had entirely misremembered how steep it was. I can't remember now if I didn't fall over due to extreme slow caution, or due to turning around and going back the other way.

[leaflemming]

Yes, that one! -- if you turn right at the high point and just go on straight up the hill, rather than on past the courts. I found it alarming free of anything to grab onto if I slipped. Would not walk down after dark, or at all.