Feb 15, 2024: Wellington

After a bit of a sleep in, we walked through some of Wellington’s city Green Belt.

We visited the Carter memorial fountain (iconic sprayer in the middle of one of Wellington’s bays!), but it was inactive. I found a wiki article about it and determined it wouldn’t be operating until 16h30, so we headed off to sample beer.

Wellington’s downtown is very walkable and compact. A bunch of it is reclaimed land, some of which was assisted by being uplifted during a quake in 1855. As well as the sun coming from the north half of the sky, it’s hard to keep your bearing, as there is water in all directions.

After trying to clear up the distinction between FJORD (drowned glacier valley characterised by steep drops into narrow waterways) and SOUND (drowned river valley with gentler slopes), I got carried away with related physical geography vocabulary, because what does a bight or a reach really mean, and why were some of our hiking routes called burns??:

BAY: body of water surrounded by land on 3 sides, usually with a wide mouth.
GULF: a large bay, usually with the neck narrower than the body.
BIGHT: a shallower indentation into coastline than a bay.
COVE: a small bay usually with narrower indentation into coastline.
INLET: a long and narrow indentation into a shoreline.
ARM: is a narrow extension, inlet, or smaller reach, of water flowing out from a much larger body of water, such as an ocean, a sea, or a lake. Although different geographically, a sound or bay may also be called an arm
REACH: a straight stretch of a river or arm of the sea. They are traditionally defined by the capabilities of sailing boats, as a stretch of a watercourse which, because it is straightish, can be sailed in one “reach” (that is, without tacking).
STRAIT: a narrow body of water that connects two larger bodies of water
CHANNEL: a wide strait or waterway that connects two larger bodies of water.
PASSAGE: a narrow channel of water that connects two larger bodies of water
CANAL: human-made passage
BURN: a large creek or small river