Discover Upper Hutt

Upper Hutt offers a variety of ways to spend your stay: Maidstone Park combines bush trails, a skate park and a mountain bike track, while galleries, a tattoo museum and craft classes cater to other interests. At Brewtown, breweries, entertainment and activities such as bowling and mini golf add to the options. You can shape your trip around outdoor exercise, art and history, or shared experiences.

Parks and outdoor activities

Maidstone Park is Upper Hutt’s most central park, just a short walk from the town centre. Several bush trails run between the main park and Kingsley Heights. The park brings together different ways to spend time in nature: you can explore the trails or focus on the park’s other facilities.

Maidstone Park also has dedicated facilities for sports and active pursuits. The enlarged, state-of-the-art skate park was expanded in May 2021. The park also has a purpose-built, 1,100-metre downhill mountain bike track. To round off a trip uphill, head to the Brett Latimer Lookout, where you can enjoy a picturesque view of Upper Hutt City and the Hutt Valley. The trails, skate park, track and lookout each offer something different, so you don’t have to limit your visit to just one activity.

Brewtown: breweries and leisure activities

Brewtown is a craft beer village with several craft breweries, a range of entertainment and a boutique distillery. Activities on offer include axe throwing, escape rooms, go-karting, bowling and mini golf. There’s a choice of everything from games and sports to spending time around craft beer. It offers different ideas for people travelling together, even if they don’t all want to focus on the same kind of outing.

Art, history and craft classes

Whirinaki Whare Taonga has five galleries with regularly changing exhibitions. They feature New Zealand and international art, local art and crafts, as well as historical exhibitions. This range brings together changing art displays, regional works and historical themes. Whirinaki Whare Taonga is a five-minute walk from the railway station and is on the main bus route. If you’d like to include a visit in your trip, these are practical points to help you plan your journey.

At Lucky’s Tattoo Museum, you can explore history from a different perspective. The museum documents the social and artistic history of tattooing through an extensive collection of tattoo art and artefacts dating from the 1940s to the present day. If you’d rather try a craft yourself, consider the offerings at Stackhouse Knives and The Potters’ Roost. Stackhouse Knives offers craft classes ranging from two-hour short courses to five-day courses. The Potters’ Roost offers beginner classes in wheel throwing and hand-building in Upper Hutt. The courses differ considerably in duration and activity.

A longer trail in the area

The Remutaka Rail Trail is in the area around Upper Hutt. This gently climbing 18-kilometre trail is suitable for walking and mountain biking, and can be reached from Upper Hutt via Pakuratahi Forest. Its length and gentle gradient are useful details for planning your day. It offers a different kind of outdoor experience from the bush trails at Maidstone Park: here, it’s about a longer trail, while the park has a range of activities at one named location.

When looking for a holiday rental in Upper Hutt, you could start by asking which of these experiences you’d like to shape your stay: art and history, craft classes, leisure activities or time outdoors. The city offers a range of ways to enjoy your visit, without any one focus having to define it.

More local area pages: Silverstream, Trentham.

For the main travel overview: Upper Hutt City.