Ngaio

The Northern Suburbs of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, can be loosely defined as the Suburbs from Chartwell in the South to Churton Park at the Northern end. The ridgeline that runs to the West of the area with Mt Kau Kau at its highest point is a major defining landmark. Within the Northern Suburbs there are pockets of housing each with a distinct character, amenities and house values.

Ngaio is situated on the slopes of Mt. Kaukau 3.5kms north of the city's CBD.  Ngaio takes its name from a New Zealand native tree, the Ngaio.

It was settled at the same time as the neighbouring suburb of Khandallah, and like its neighbour many of its streets are named after places on the Indian subcontinent. Ngaio was a logging community originally known as Crofton until 1908, the area was administratively part of a separate local authority called the Onslow Borough Council which amalgamated into Wellington City in 1919.

The suburb is served by the Johnsonville Branch commuter railway which connects it to the central city, and many bus routes going to Johnsonville stop on the main road.

Khandallah

Khandallah is located four kilometres northeast of the city centre, on hills overlooking Wellington Harbour.

The suburb's name, which means "Resting place of God", comes from a homestead built in the area in 1884 by Captain James Andrew, who had recently returned from duty in India. For this reason the suburb and those surrounding it have many place names connected with the Continent.

The northeastern part of the suburb is dominated by a large area of parkland, which stretches north towards Johnsonville. Between them the three parks that make up this reserve land total almost 2 km² of the slopes of Mount KauKau. The summit of this 445-metre peak, which is topped by Wellington's main television transmitter tower, provides impressive views of the harbour.

Khandallah has a reputation for being the most affluent of Wellington's northern suburbs and has a well settled feel. The Khandallah Village retains an intimate local flavour. There are some small pockets of new development along with some infill housing on the harbourside ridges but new building in the suburb has largely been limited.

Broadmeadows

Broadmeadows was developed on a steep South and East facing hillside under Mt KauKau in the 1970's with housing on the higher slopes and Northern reaches being largely completed in the last few years. It is a commuter suburb with a good bus link but no shops or other amenities. It is popular with families as the lower edges brush against the Onslow College boundary.

Johnsonville

Johnsonville is one of Wellington’s most historic suburbs, only 10 minutes from Wellington’s CBD, just off State Highway 1; also handy for Lower Hutt and Porirua.

There are still a number of early settler houses, often marked by clusters of macrocarpa trees. Originally called Johnson’s Crossing, it was the second of Sir George Grey’s stockades during the campaign against Te Rauparaha in 1846 (the first stockade was Sentry Box Hill in Khandallah, now known as Box Hill). The Old Coach Road was built around 1857, the first practical access to Ohariu Valley; it’s recognized as one of the best preserved horse-era roads in New Zealand and has a Category I Historic Places listing. From 1912 Johnsonville’s water was supplied by the Ohariu Dam until the area was connected to the Kaitoke water supply in 1946; the concrete dam and other remains are still visible.

Johnsonville Shopping Centre is the commercial hub of the Northern Suburbs. It is seven kilometres north of the city centre, at the top of the Ngauranga Gorge, on the main route to Porirua (State Highway 1). The population of "J'ville" (as it is commonly known) was about 6,500 at the 2001 census.
Johnsonville is a reasonably large residential and commercial suburb. It is the northern terminus of the Tranz Metro dedicated electric passenger rail line to central Wellington and also has a bus hub at the railway station, which supports the large commuter population in the surrounding suburbs. Housing is spread around the shopping hub in the centre and extends out to the base of Mt Kaukau to the west, and out across the hill towards the suburb of Newlands to the south-east.

There is a proposal in place that would see the current retail space almost triple along with redevelopment of the transport hub.

For more info on the history of Johnsonville, read this great article published in the Dominion Post in Jan 2010.

Newlands

Newlands lies approximately 8km north of the city centre and to the east of its nearest neighbour, Johnsonville. Most of Newlands is perched on one of several hills, one side of which overlooks Wellington Harbour and up to the Hutt Valley.

Woodridge Estate and Bellevue Estate are two examples of new housing subdivisions in the greater Newlands area. Both of these subdivsions are very popular and are still growing with land and house packages available from the developers.
As part of Wellington's growth framework, there is much potential on the easy rolling West facing land North of Woodridge and Grenada Village.
Newlands is certainly an area to watch in terms of further capital growth as young homebuyers flock to the area to purchase value housing for their first home.
The Newlands area is well served by buses to and from the city and linking with the Johnsonville train, run by Newlands Coach Services.

Churton Park

Churton Park is a new, wealthy and upper-middle class suburb located in the Northern Suburbs district of Wellington, 1.5 km north of Johnsonville. It is popular as an executive commuter suburb but currently has no shops and relies on Johnsonville for shopping amenities. It as a fast growing suburb and has been very popular with new immigrants to Wellington who want newer value housing.

It is a family-oriented suburb with spacious executive houses, lots of little parks, and walkways between cul-de-sacs (wonderful for interesting constitutionals, or simply walking the dog). It’s also one of Wellington’s most culturally diverse areas, with people from China, India and South Africa; on a summer’s evening the cooking smells can be tantalizing – garlic, lemon grass, spices, and the traditional Kiwi BBQ.

Churton Park is the main area of new housing in north Wellington, with more than 70 building consents issued in 2006 and around 1,300 new houses proposed for Stebbings Valley. It’s hoped work on a shopping centre development will begin next year. The local primary school is decile 10.

Churton Park School is the suburb's only primary school. It has a very credible reputation both within and outside the community. As the suburb's only school, good reputation and growing population, the school's roll has rapidly increased over the years. To accommodate these increases, there have been many renovations to the school's buildings within the last 10 years. A new site for a larger school has been proposed.

There are no intermediate schools or colleges within the area, so many students attend Raroa Normal Intermediate, Newlands Intermediate, Onslow College and Newlands College; all within the local Johnsonville and Newlands area.

The geography of the land is quite hilly and has dense bush in some areas that have not been excavated for housing sub-divisions. Steep hills eventually extend over to the Ohariu Valley nearby.

There is much new housing planned North of Churton Park towards Tawa. This suburb along with the land North of Newlands towards Horokiwi will provide the space for the future growth of Wellington.

Churton Park Community Association  http://churtonpark.org.nz/ 

Churton Park, with just one school and a lone dairy, is the Wellington suburb that progress forgot.

But that is about to change. The Education Ministry has announced plans for a second primary school to ease the burden on the existing Churton Park School.

Principal Arthur von Sturmer said the school's roll was bursting, even though the ministry knew for 15 years that an additional school would be needed.

"We came up with figures to show that we would be in the situation we are in now and the ministry has been relatively slow ... to look at additional schooling in the area."

Education Minister Anne Tolley said the new school would be equipped for "a 21st-century learning environment".

It would cater for 200 pupils when it opened in 2012 in Amesbury Dr.

Paparangi

Built in the 1960's by Beazley Homes this subdivision is very popular because of its sunny aspect, solid well built homes, and value for money. It has seen excellent capital growth and will continue to thrive as the land North is opened up on the East side of the state highway in the next few years. Paparangi has a wonderful microclimate with more sunshine and less wind than many of its immediate neighbours being on the lower West facing slopes of the ridgeline that faces Johnsonville and Churton Park.

Grenada Village

The Northern most suburb in the Northern Suburbs. Grenada Village was developed in the 1980's. It has been a dead end suburb for decades but the road running through Grenada Village has just been opened and now drivers can get on to the motorway via the Churton Park off ramp north of Johnsonville. This also allows access to large tracts of rolling West facing land perfect for housing Wellington's future population growth over the coming 20 years. This along with Paparangi is a Suburb to watch as further suburban and infrastructure development will make this a vibrant and fast growing community. Visit the Wellington City Council website for more details. The first phase of this new subdivsion called Hunter's Hill is now under way with the first 40 sections being sold and the first handful of new homes being erected.

Ohariu Valley - Makara

Nestled in a valley 10 to 15 minutes drive from Johnsonville and approximately 25 minutes from Wellington lies the beautiful Ohariu Valley.
An area of natural beauty with steep hills, large sheep and beef farms and many rural lifestyle farmlets ranging in size from 2000m2 to       20 hectares.

A lot of visitors from the city also take an enjoyable Sunday drive to the Valley and then continue on to Makara Beach approximately 11km away via Takarau Gorge which also is a very pleasant drive following small streams through stunning rugged country, again dotted with lifestyle properties hidden away enjoying their privacy.

Information for this page was sourced from wikipedia.org, Alexander Turnbull Library, and the Wellington City Council archives.