Mount Victoria at 196 metres is the closest significant summit to Wellington's city centre — a ten-minute bus ride or 30-minute walk from Courtenay Place takes you to the car park near the top, from which it is a two-minute walk to the lookout. The panorama is remarkable: the CBD, the harbour, the Rimutaka Range to the northeast, and on clear days the South Island across Cook Strait.
The hill is threaded with walking tracks through native bush and old pine plantations. A classic loop takes about an hour: up through the lookout, down through the pine grove, across to the Hobbit filming site, and back via the City to Sea walkway. The summit is good in any weather — on stormy days the wind is wild and the views over a dark churning harbour have their own drama. Wellington's famous southerly squalls tend to arrive over this hill first.