Emerald Hill, New Zealand

Parkdale is a mainly residential subdivision in the suburb of Birchville in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. It is located north of the Upper Hutt city centre on the northern side of Emerald Hill nestled between Birchville, Te Mārua, Timberlea and Brown Owl. Although the developers originally pitched this housing development as a new suburb, this has not been accepted by the Upper Hutt City Council, which considers the subdivision to be part of the suburb of Birchville. Also, from as early as 1982, the New Zealand Geographic Board also clarified that Birchville, rather than Parkdale was the official locality name. Local residents rarely refer to it as a suburb of its own. The major through street is Gemstone Drive, which runs roughly west–east from Akatarawa Road to the end of the subdivision at Topaz Street, which then connects with State Highway 2. Most other streets in the subdivision are cul-de-sacs and are named, alphabetically from Akatarawa Road, after gemstones (e.g. Amber Grove, Moonstone Grove). This subdivision has a reputation for being a down-market suburb, because a number of own-your-own or cross-leased units erected early in the development (although this trend did not continue as the development progressed). There is a Jehovah's Witnesses church at the eastern end of the subdivision.

Timberlea is a suburb of Upper Hutt, located 3.5-6.5 km northeast from the city centre. It had a population of 1612 at the 2013 Census.The suburb is located on a plateau of the Eastern Hutt Valley Hills, with most of the suburb being 115-135 metres above sea level. It can be accessed from SH2 by exiting at Norana Road. It is bordered by Maoribank at the lower, south-western end of Norana Road and Brown Owl by SH2 to the north. While there are no shops in Timberlea, residents have access to the Caltex service station and small shopping centre in neighbouring Brown Owl. The main shops in Upper Hutt's city centre are only 3.5-6.5 km away, depending on where in Timberlea you are travelling from.

Birchville is a suburb of Upper Hutt, New Zealand in the North Island. Its centre lies at the entrance to the Akatarawa Valley, in the north of the city, near confluence of the Akatarawa River with the Hutt River. It is about a 5 km (10-minute) drive north from the centre of Upper Hutt. The Birchville community is spread out along both banks of the Hutt River in a long fairly narrow valley.

The Akatarawa River is a river in the lower North Island of New Zealand. It is a short river, flowing south for 20 kilometres (12 mi) through small rocky gorges and the Akatarawa Valley before joining the Hutt River at Birchville, a suburb in the northern end of Upper Hutt. Its eventual outflow is into Wellington Harbour, then into Cook Strait.

Brown Owl is a suburb of Upper Hutt, located 3–4km from the city centre. It developed slowly from the 1960s The suburb is located on the eastern side of the Hutt River at the base of the Eastern Hutt Valley Hills and Emerald Hill, with SH2 running right through it. It is bordered by Timberlea to the east (at the intersection of SH2 and Norana Road in the northeast), Maoribank to the south of SH2 at Moeraki Road, and Birchville just past the northern side of Harcourt Park on Akatarawa Road. Tōtara Park can be accessed by foot by crossing the Harcourt Park Bridge at the end of Norbert Street. Brown Owl is serviced by a small shopping centre on Akatarawa Road and a Caltex service station on SH2 opposite Moeraki Road.

Maoribank is a suburb of Upper Hutt, located 2–3 km east-northeast of the city centre. It was predominantly developed between 1950-1970 and had a population of just less than 1000 at the 2013 Census.It is located at the base of the Eastern Hutt Valley Hills, on a slight incline. Maoribank can be accessed from SH2 by exiting at either Mangaroa Hill Road or Moeraki Road. It is bordered by Timberlea by following Norana Road up the hill to the northeast, Brown Owl by crossing SH2 next to the Caltex service station, and Clouston Park to the southwest by crossing Mangaroa Hill Road. The Mangaroa Valley can be accessed by traversing Mangaroa Hill Road over the Mangaroa Hill in the Eastern Hutt Valley Hills. While there are no shops in Maoribank, residents have access to the Caltex service station and small shopping centre in neighbouring Brown Owl. The shops in Central Upper Hutt are only 2 to 3 km away.

Te Mārua (previously also known as Te Marua) is the easternmost urban suburb of Upper Hutt. For reasons of location and distance from the city, the area is often classified as rural. In December 2019, the approved official geographic name of the locality was gazetted as "Te Mārua".

Birchville Dam is believed to be the second unreinforced concrete arch dam built for water supply in New Zealand. It was built in 1930 for the Upper Hutt Borough Council to provide increased water capacity for the borough and replaced a water supply weir built in 1913–1914 at the same location on Clarke's Creek, near Birchville. Decommissioned in 1958, when Upper Hutt joined the Wellington regional water scheme, this dam is now an historic attraction on the Cannon Point Walkway. This Dam does not appear in the New Zealand Dam Inventory (1994).

The Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust is a non-profit, charitable trust in New Zealand that was established in 2003 with the objective of reinstating an operating heritage railway over the Remutaka Ranges using the original route of the Wairarapa Line between Maymorn and Featherston, including the world-famous Rimutaka Incline.

andHow.FM is a non-profit, independent radio station which broadcasts at 107.5 FM in Mangaroa, New Zealand. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day from their FM broadcast and internet radio simulcast. andHow.FM is licensed with APRA and Recorded Music NZ in New Zealand for music broadcasting rights and operates under the NZ laws governing LPFM transmission. The station openly encourages and programs music from primarily independent music artists.

Mangaroa is a rural settlement just outside of Upper Hutt, situated in the lower North Island of New Zealand. It includes lifestyle blocks and farms surrounded by hills, which are usually covered by a dusting of snow during the winter. The former Mangaroa Railway Station is located at Mangaroa. Mangaroa has its own indie rock radio station, andHow.FM. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "long stream" for Mangaroa.

The Mangaroa River is a river of the Wellington Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows north from the western foothills of the Remutaka Range to the west of Lower Hutt, meeting with the Hutt River on the northern outskirts of Upper Hutt.