Lowry Bay Loop
Lower Hutt · Wellington
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. The rule-setter’s own wording: “Dogs on a lead. (Hutt City Council, Dog Control Bylaw 2025, Schedule Two, Dog Exercise Areas, read 8 September 2026.) Hutt City's rule is the ordinary one for a New Zealand city: a dog is on a lead in a public place unless the council has designated that particular piece of ground as a Dog Exercise Area, and Schedule Two is the list of the places it has designated. We read the whole schedule rather than a summary of it. It runs to 39 areas and it covers every suburb, from Stokes Valley and Kelson at the top of the valley through Naenae, Waiwhetu, Moera, Petone and Wainuiomata, and down the eastern bays as far as Eastbourne, where Muritai Beach, Days Bay Beach and Williams Park all get their own entry. Lowry Bay is not in it, and neither is Francis Bell Reserve or any of the tracks in it. There is no Cheviot Road, Ngaumatau Road or Dillon Street entry anywhere in the schedule. So no exception applies here and the default stands: on a lead, the whole way up and the whole way down. One correction we owe this page. We first read this walk as part of Greater Wellington's East Harbour Regional Park, whose Northern Forest rule is its own, and told the member who sent it in as much. That was the wrong land. These tracks sit in Francis Bell Reserve, which Hutt City owns and manages, so it is the city bylaw that governs and not the regional park's. The verdict is the same either way, on a lead, but the reason matters and we would rather show our working than quietly swap it”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Lowry Bay Loop
Lowry Bay Loop covers 3.0 km, near Lower Hutt in Wellington.
A short, steep climb straight off the street in Lowry Bay, up through regenerating bush to the ridge behind the eastern bays, with a view over Wellington Harbour at the top that is well out of proportion to the effort. It is almost exactly 3 km the way we have drawn it, with about 220 m of climbing in it, and an hour and a half is a fair allowance once you have stopped at the top. Melanie sent it in, and her description of it as a loop with a couple of options is exactly right, which is why it is worth reading how the tracks fit together before you start. The climb is the Cheviot Road Track. It leaves the top of Cheviot Street and works its way up in a steady line to the ridge, where it meets the Howard Road Track and the Main Ridge Track. There are no steps on it, which is the thing to know if you are bringing a dog that does not love stairs or a set of knees that does not either. The views are at the top and they are worth the short detour along the ridge to find the open spots. Coming back down you have the choice Melanie describes. You can retrace the Cheviot Road Track to where you started, or, a little above the street, take the Ngaumatau Road Track west and pick up the Dillon Street Loop, which brings you out at Dillon Street a couple of hundred metres around the bay. That second way is the line we have drawn, because it is the one she walked. Two warnings about it, both of which the elevation profile above will show you. It is not a straight run down: after dropping most of the way off the ridge you climb roughly 55 m back up before the final descent, which catches people out at the end of a walk. And it finishes on a long flight of steep steps down to Dillon Street. There are two branches to the Dillon Street Loop and both end at the same set of steps, so neither one lets you dodge them. Dogs are on a lead here and it is the plain city rule rather than anything specific to this reserve. Francis Bell Reserve is Hutt City ground and it is not one of the council's designated Dog Exercise Areas, so the lead stays on for the whole walk. One thing Melanie asked us to pass on, and we think she is right to. She met two off lead dogs on this track, one of them not under control, and it went for Donna, her own on lead dog, who is reactive. The tracks are narrow and bush lined with very little room to step aside and give another dog space. If yours needs distance from strange dogs, the Cheviot Road Track up and back is the more open of the two ends, and a weekday morning is a lot quieter than a weekend.
Expect moderate going, with around 218 m of climb, and takes about 57 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Melanie & Donna suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.