To get to Tarakena Bay in Wellington, take Moa Point Road around the southern end of Wellington Airport and Moa Point. You will see a sign for the modern Ataturk Memorial, which sits above Tarakena Bay. From the car park, it is a short but steep walk (mostly steps) to the top of the hill where the memorial is.
This is both a great viewpoint – over the harbour mouth, the bay and Cook Strait – and a moving tribute to the generosity of Ataturk, the leader of Turkish forces at Gallipoli, towards the ANZACs who died in the failed campaign of 1916. You can also see a similarly moving commentary at the Te Papa Museum Gallipoli display.
There is also a walkway that heads north along the top of the eastside cliffs and hills of the peninsula as far as Breaker Bay and Point Dorset from the memorial walk.
On the east side of Tarakena Bay at Gibraltar Rock is the first of several Wahine shipwreck memorials (NZ’s worst maritime disaster in 1968) scattered around the harbour entrance.
