November 16, 2023
We visited two amazing gardens today, Pukeiti and Pukekura Park. These are big-scale gardens, more akin to botanic gardens, or a New Zealand twist on the grand landscape gardens of England, than the modest suburban gardens I’m used to.
Pukeiti is a rhododendron garden set amid acres of temperate rainforest. I had no idea of the scale of the place. We spent a happy couple of hours wandering through the gardens, along interconnecting paths. And it’s not all rhododendrons: As well as the backdrop of native forest, there’s camellias, azaleas, hydrangeas, magnolias, smaller herbacious perennials, water-loving flowers . . . in short, a feast of plants. There’s also numerous walking tracks, of various lengths, through the regenerating rainforest. I’ve known about this garden for years — never been particularly interested in visiting it. How wrong can one be!
A bonus was the route getting there — it reminded us of the Forgotten World Highway, but sealed, although, oddly, not as much traffic. It’s narrow and winding in parts, passing through tunnels of native bush. We did the round trip, starting on Carrington Road in the city (which turns to a rural road, providing direct route to Pukeiti), and continuing on from Pukeiti to join Highway 45, the Surf Highway which runs along the Taranaki coast back to New Plymouth.
We had three gardens on our agenda this afternoon: Pukeiti, Tupare and Pukekura Park. By the time we got back to New Plymouth, we had time only for Pukekura Park, so hopefully we can manage Tupare on the way home. I had known about Pukekura Park as a sports venue and hadn’t realised it is an extensive botanical garden. We barely scratched the surface, so it’s earmarked for a return visit when we have more time and energy. It has kindled our interest in learning more about our native flora and fauna though.
Tomorrow it’s Len Lye at the Govett Brewster. And hopefully a return visit to Chaos, the cafe with great coffee that we found after some trial and error this morning.
Off Highway One 