Access

From the city centre, the walk is signposted via Trafalgar Street. Take the 6th on the left onto Hardy Street (the crossroads with the museum). Stay on Hardy Street until just after crossing the Maitai River. There is parking on the left by the large grass reserve.

The start of the track is on the far side of this reserve, by the information panels.

Track

The track is well signposted on the ascent to the monument and viewing area at the summit of Botanical Hill (147m). A network of tracks lead through the native forest gully and regenerating scrub, with a signposted detour to a kauri tree. Only at the top of the hill are there clearings in the vegetation with views out in every direction.

Geology

Views stretch all over Tasman Bay to the Kahurangi Ranges, with Nelson City and the Port in the foreground.

European History

The Centre of New Zealand is not the geographical centre of New Zealand. It is named such thanks to the John Spence Browning, Chief Surveyor of Nelson in the 1870s. His job was to fix the map of New Zealand by combining the disparate surveys already undertaken with a geodetic survey. By taking into account the curvature of the earth, a more accurate grid of the country could be anchored. He chose this high point as the ‘centre’ from which all other surveys were related.

The actual centre of New Zealand was determined in 1962 as a point on the Spooners Range in Golden Downs Forest to the south.