Brown Owl, New Zealand

Brown Owl is a suburb of Upper Hutt, located 3 - 4km from the city centre. Developed slowly from the 1960s, it had a population of 1157 at the 2013 Census.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. Totara 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.SubdivisionsBrown Owl is split into three distinctive areas:The main central part of Brown Owl was mostly developed between 1970 and 1990, and contains all of the businesses in Brown Owl.On the south-western side of Emerald Hill are four streets which contain houses that offer expansive views across the Upper Hutt Valley. The main street, Sunnyview Drive, regularly contains a Christmas lights exhibition annually in December; many of the residents light up their houses and the street with extensive lights displays. It can be seen right across the Upper Hutt Valley. This area was mainly developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Next to the river and Te Haukaretu Park is the Riverglade subdivision. This modern subdivision, developed between the early 1990s and mid-2000s, contains large executive homes; with many of these homes having views across Te Haukaretu Park towards the Hutt River.