We began the day by visiting the Olveston House in Dunedin. Then we went to the Larnach Castle to eat lunch and tour the garden with beautiful views of Dunedin Bay. At the end of the day we had a guided tour of the Albatross Colony. OLVESTON HOUSE The house and its furnishings, history and…

Today was spent traveling from Oamaru to Dunedin with 4 stops along the way – Old Oamaru, Moeraki Boulders, Fleur’s Place for lunch and Dunedin Botanical Garden. OLD OAMARU We stopped in Old Oamaru to look at an old steam train and old buildings of the last century: These buildings were made from the limestone…

Today we leave Christchurch and visit 2 gardens on the way to Oamaru – Broadfield Gardens and Trotts Garden. BROADFIELD GARDENS The owner, David Hobbs, talked with us for a minute about the garden. It is about 7 acres and is maintained by him and 2 helpers for a total of 80 hours a week:…

We saw 3 unusual and amazing gardens today – Garden at French Farm, The Giant’s House and Fisherman’s Bay Garden. GARDEN AT FRENCH FARM (OHINETAHI GARDEN) This garden is about 6 acres on a beautiful piece of land right next to Governors Bay in Allendale, NZ. It is maintained by 2 gardeners with occasional other…

Today we visited one great garden called Flaxmere. In the afternoon I visited the Christchurch Botanical Garden. FLAXMERE The owner, Penny Zion, explains the history of the garden: The garden is about 7 acres on a huge farm which she owns. She does all the maintenance with a couple of helpers. Everywhere in the garden…

We did not see any gardens today but we did travel 6 hours from the west coast to the east coast of the south island. During this trip we encountered the pancake rocks, beautiful countryside, an engineering marvel and snow covered mountains: PANCAKE ROCKS The pancake rocks are located in Paparoa National Park. The rock…

Before we drove across the South Island we visited two gardens: Woodend Garden and the Hammond Garden. WOODEND GARDEN I asked a man who had a name badge on if he was the gardener who pruned all these hedges and he said that he was the owner but he did prune the hedges: Arbors and…

On our second day in Blenheim, NZ we saw the Paripuma Garden, lunched at the Allen Scott Family Winemakers vineyard and visited Welton House Garden. PARIPUMA GARDEN As you can see from the first photo, the grass is getting drier in the hills and there will be more watering required in gardens on the South…

The South Island of NZ tour starts today and this is the route to the gardens: We took the ferry through Cook Strait and then visited Upton Oaks, the chocolate factory and Hortensia House. COOK STRAIT The ferry took us, the bus and our luggage from Wellington to Picton on the South Island of NZ….

We have the day off today as the North Island tour is ending and the South Island tour is beginning tomorrow. Several of us decided to go to Zealandia which is a place where you can see birds and animals in a natural but fenced area in a valley in Wellington: The main paths are…