The Aro Valley forms a small inner-city suburb of Wellington in New Zealand. It takes its name from the stream which originally flowed where modern Epuni Street is. The stream's Māori name was originally Wai-Mapihi, but it was commonly called Te Aro Stream due to it running through the Te Aro flat.
Geography
The Aro Valley is 126 hectares running between the hills of Brooklyn to the south, and Kelburn to the north, with the area of Karori to the west and Te Aro, the city centre to the east.
Much of Wellington consists of the remnants of an old peneplain, a flat expanse that rose from the sea about 20 million years ago. This land was heavily dissected by watercourses from that time and today the tops of the hills around Wellington indicate the general height of that eroded peneplain. During this time massive faults appeared that are still active today.
Aro Valley formed from fault activity. One kilometre to the west of Aro Valley is the Wellington Fault running north-east along the foot of the Tinakori Hills and beyond. A series of splinter faults branch off from the Wellington Fault. Activity along these faults over millions of years caused tilting of the land to create valleys, including Aro Valley, south-east of the main fault.
Aro Valley, and its tributary valleys, are well sheltered from the wind and have soil enriched by past alluvial deposits. The valley walls are steep in places and house sites are correspondingly uneven, in typical Wellington fashion.
The valley comprises part of the bed of the Wai-Mapihi Stream. Aro Street runs through the whole valley, from Willis Street in the east to Raroa Road in the west; major side-streets include Devon Street, Epuni Street, Adams Terrace, Mitchelltown's Holloway Road and Taitville's Norway Street.
Parks
A prominent feature of Aro Valley is Aro Park, which is the site of the former Matauranga School, which was itself on the site of the original Catholic school – St Mary of the Angels. The Park was formerly known as Seed's Hill after an early (1864) resident, Mr. Wm. Seed. The Park has been extended and landscaped in recent years and is a focus for community recreation, especially on summer nights and weekends; the Aro Valley Community Centre stands on part of the park.
in 2017 Wellington Council purchased a considerable area of land to the north west border of Aro Park which will form part of the Wellington Town Belt.
Aro Valley is almost surrounded by parkland the Aro Park to the north, Polhill Gully Recreation Reserve to the Northwest and Tenera Reserve & Central Park to the Southeast.
Polhill Gully
Polhill Reserve - on the western end of Aro Street - was named for the early settler, Baker Polhill. After his arrival in 1841 aboard the Oriental, Polhill started a business selling timber harvested from the gully. Although he did not own the land, it became known as Polhill's Gully. The area was originally a cultivation for Te Aro Māori.
By the 1960s Victoria University was considering Polhill Gully and Holloway Road as potential sites for its own expansion and began buying houses but by the 1970s the plans were being actively challenged by a new generation of Mitchelltown residents who felt the houses and the neighbourhood were worth saving, and by others who envisaged the restoration of Polhill Gully for wildlife habitat and recreational use. Discussion, disagreement and protest went on for years, and the university finally abandoned its plans in the early 1980s. Polhill Gully became a City Council Recreation Reserve in 1989.
Today the reserve is an attractive amenity used by more than a thousand cyclists, runners and walkers a week. It is also frequented by birds, including—thanks to the proximity of the Zealandia wildlife sanctuary—many tūī and kaka, and the occasional bellbird, grey warbler, North Island robin and saddleback.
History
The Aro Valley today is a largely untouched remnant of old Wellington, with the majority of its dwellings dating from the first two decades of the twentieth century, and a significant number from the nineteenth. The Wellington City Council notes: "The Valley projects a strong sense of place due to its geographical separation from other parts of the city, the enclosure of the valley walls and the relative consistency of development within."