Suggested itineraries - South Island
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tasman and nelson
Three days around Blenheim, working out from the town to the Wairau Plains, then south along the coast to Seddon and Kekerengu. Most of these gardens are private and open by appointment, so book before you travel.
Day one: Blenheim
9.30am. Seymour Square, Seymour Street, Blenheim. 4 stars. One hectare in the middle of town, known as the Garden of Memories, with formal beds replanted twice a year, a deep herbaceous border along the northern boundary, and the 1927 clock tower and 1953 fountain, both war memorials. Open 24 hours, free.
11.00am. Whitney, 8 Whitney Street, Blenheim which is 5 minutes from the post office. 4 stars. Established in 1935 and restored in 1981, cottage plantings and natives around a Tudor style house, with fruit trees, a vegetable garden, a summer house and a berry cage. A photo album of the garden since 1935 is out for visitors. $10 adults and seniors, by appointment. Closed 11 December to 9 February.
12.30pm. Lunch in Blenheim.
2.00pm. Willows Green, 57 Fairbourne Drive, Blenheim. 4 stars. A hillside garden made since 2017, looking over vineyards to the Wither Hills, with rose borders, the Lane of Roses, a woodland walk of hydrangeas and a boardwalk down to Lake Wentworth. $15 per person, by appointment, and regularly open Sundays over summer. Morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch on request.
Stay the night: Blenheim.
marlborough
Three days around Blenheim, working out from the town to the Wairau Plains, then south along the coast to Seddon and Kekerengu. Most of these gardens are private and open by appointment, so book before you travel.
Day one: Blenheim
9.30am. Seymour Square, Seymour Street, Blenheim. 4 stars. One hectare in the middle of town, known as the Garden of Memories, with formal beds replanted twice a year, a deep herbaceous border along the northern boundary, and the 1927 clock tower and 1953 fountain, both war memorials. Open 24 hours, free.
11.00am. Whitney, 8 Whitney Street, Blenheim which is 5 minutes from the post office. 4 stars. Established in 1935 and restored in 1981, cottage plantings and natives around a Tudor style house, with fruit trees, a vegetable garden, a summer house and a berry cage. A photo album of the garden since 1935 is out for visitors. $10 adults and seniors, by appointment. Closed 11 December to 9 February.
12.30pm. Lunch in Blenheim.
2.00pm. Willows Green, 57 Fairbourne Drive, Blenheim. 4 stars. A hillside garden made since 2017, looking over vineyards to the Wither Hills, with rose borders, the Lane of Roses, a woodland walk of hydrangeas and a boardwalk down to Lake Wentworth. $15 per person, by appointment, and regularly open Sundays over summer. Morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch on request.
Stay the night: Blenheim.
Day two: the Wairau Plains
9.30am. Welton House, 10 Staces Road, Grovetown which is 10 minutes north of Blenheim. 5 stars, and an Earth Star garden. A garden on a remnant sand dune with views across the Wairau to the Richmond Ranges, where sculptural topiary echoes the ranges and oversized timber steps and pergolas anchor the planting. Open by appointment from 1 September, 10am to 3pm, $30 adults. A private chef can cater morning tea, lunch or a picnic for groups.
11.30am. Eliza's Garden Cottage, 50 Staces Road, 500 metres on. 5 stars. A one acre woodland garden around a 1967 cottage, with mature rhododendrons at their best in October and November, magnolias, lilies, ferns and wheki ponga, and Himalayan giant lilies flowering through the woodland in December. Admission is included with Welton House, and you visit Welton first. Open 1 December to 31 May.
1.00pm. Lunch in Renwick, among the vineyards.
2.30pm. Longfield, 411 New Renwick Road, Fairhall. 5 stars. A grand formal garden on Italian lines, with statues, fountains and Corinthian columns after Tivoli, brick walls and hornbeam hedges making the rooms, and old fashioned roses, citrus, lavender and olives alongside an English orangery. By appointment.
Stay the night: Blenheim, or at Eliza's, which takes guests in the three bedroom cottage with the garden, pool and wood fired hot tub to yourself.
Day three: south along the coast
9.30am. Paripuma, 243 Renners Road, Clifford Bay, RD4 Blenheim which is 30 minutes south. 5 stars, and an Earth Star garden. Twenty years of planting on what was barren, windswept beachfront, formal in design with the vista across Cloudy Bay, now given over to natives for wildlife, with a perennial garden that won a national award in 2020 as habitat for butterflies. $20 in peak season from September to April, children free, by appointment. No Eftpos.
12.30pm. Barewood, 140 Barewood Road, Seddon which is 35 minutes on. 5 stars. Four acres made over 55 years around a century old homestead at the head of a dry farming valley, with white wisteria and old roses over the verandah in spring, a formal potager of trained fruit, herbs and self-seeded flowers, and the original cob cottage now a gift shop. $25 per person, open by appointment October to April. Lunch available on request, so arrange it when you book.
3.30pm. Winterhome, 5781 State Highway 1, Kekerengu which is 45 minutes south. 5 stars. A 1939 homestead garden laid out on classical French lines, with a brick-walled canal garden, a box-edged rose garden planted entirely with Rosa 'Margaret Merrill', an orange parterre, and a swing bridge over the drive to an avocado orchard and the ocean view. $20 adults, children free, by appointment.
Stay the night: Kaikōura, 40 minutes further south. Or back to Blenheim, also 40 minutes.
CANTERBURY
The largest region in the country, and the most varied. Six days from Christchurch out to the Waipara vineyards and the Hurunui high country, across the plains to Oxford, over the hills to Banks Peninsula, and south to Timaru.
Day one: Christchurch
9.30am. Willow Springs, 25 Quaids Road, Marshland. 3 stars. Seven acres built as a refuge for plants rescued from the red zones of Christchurch and Kaiapoi. Named for the mature willows and the springs marked on the 1883 Black Map. $15 unguided, $20 guided, by appointment. Open September to early May. Morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch on request.
12.00pm. Christchurch Botanic Garden, Rolleston Avenue which is 20 minutes into town. 5 stars. Century-old trees, rhododendron and shrub borders, a long herbaceous border, the formal rose garden at its best in December, and the Heritage Rose Garden across the Avon. The Cockayne Memorial Garden holds the native collection. Free. Lunch at the visitor centre.
3.00pm. Broadfield, 250 Selwyn Road, Weedons which is 25 minutes south-west. 6 stars. 3.5 hectares, with 1.5km of tōtara hedging, a young kauri forest of over 100 trees, a 140m reflective canal, a 120m New Zealand border, a sedge pond and a formal rose garden. $20 adults, children free. Open 8am to 4.30pm Wednesdays and Saturdays, otherwise by arrangement.
Stay the night: Christchurch.
Day two: Waipara and the Hurunui
9.45am. Pegasus Bay Winery, 263 Stockgrove Road, Amberley which is 45 minutes north on SH1. 4 stars. Sweeping lawns and an amphitheatre, lakes crossed by four red Japanese bridges, a rhododendron dell, a rare conifer collection with cloud pruning, an iceberg rose walkway, a laburnum walk, parterre gardens, original French fountains and the Donaldson family pou. Eel feeding. Gardens open 7 days, guided tours weekdays at $10 per adult if booked ahead.
12.00pm. Lunch at the Mini Deli, open Thursday to Monday 10am to 5pm. No food or drink on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so run this day Thursday to Monday.
1.45pm. Flaxmere, 128 Westenras Road, Hawarden which is 45 minutes inland via Waikari. 6 stars. Sixty years old on a sheep farm under the Southern Alps, with five ponds, heavy old bridge timbers, stone walls, native plantings, woodland, roses and rhododendrons, and a dry gravel garden watered only by rain. $20 adults and seniors, children under 12 free, by appointment. Guided tours $150 for groups. Morning tea, afternoon tea or lunch by arrangement for groups of 10 or more.
4.15pm. Coldstream, 197 Culverden Road, RD2 Culverden which is half an hour north. 5 stars. One hectare through a picket gate, with mature oaks and silver birch over beds of roses, camellias and rhododendrons, and a pond filtered by Coldstream creek. Parts of the garden are being refurbished after severe wind in 2025, so ring ahead.
Stay the night: Hanmer Springs, 35 minutes on.
9.30am. Loch Leven Garden and Nursery, 714 Rotherham Road South, Rotherham which is half an hour back down. 5 stars. 1.2 hectares made from bare paddocks, with wide borders of viburnums, rhododendrons, hostas, roses and irises, extensive hedging, wire art sculptures and peony beds flowering from mid October into late November. Nursery on site.
1.00pm. The Rusty Acre, 1 Roscrea Place, Mandeville which is an hour south. Entrance off McHughs Road, through the steel gate in the cypress hedge. 4 stars. Two acres made from a bare paddock in 1993, now an outdoor gallery of over 70 steel sculptures by Allan O'Loughlin, with two ponds, an orchard, a vegetable and herb garden, and a table for eight under a steel candelabra. $15 per person, children free. Open Friday to Sunday 10am to 4pm, October to April, groups by arrangement midweek.
3.15pm. Broadoak, 232 Jacksons Road, Ohoka which is 10 minutes east. 5 stars. Two acres from a former peony paddock, walled by a 3 metre hedge between twenty brick pillars with gargoyles. Three rooms: formal English beds and fountains, then knot gardens with a sunken native area and a super-size chess board, then through an ornate 100 year old teak door onto the wedding lawn and chapel.
Stay the night: Christchurch
Day three: the Amuri Basin to the Waimakariri
Day four: Oxford and the plains
9.30am. Oasis Cottage, View Hill, 7km outside Oxford which is 40 minutes west. 3 stars. Five acres around an 1898 homestead under Mount Oxford, with the Blue Garden's raised beds, a vegetable allée, heirloom orchard, arboretum and cut-flower borders. Open on select days and by appointment, November to March for groups.
12.00pm. Lunch at Sheffield on SH73.
1.15pm. Casa Rossa, 203 Jowers Road, West Melton. Twenty years around a former shingle pit, with an Italian house and garden after the film Much Ado About Nothing. A 60 metre tapestry beech walk focuses the view to a pond with a Japanese arched bridge, and there are collections of bamboos, rhododendrons and hostas among magnolias, oaks, elms, sequoia and palms. $15 adults, children under 12 free. Open weekends 10am to 5pm, Labour Weekend to 31 March. Allow an hour.
3.30pm. Terrace Station, 151 Milnes Road via Cordys Road, Hororata which is 35 minutes south-west. A verified Collection rather than a star rated garden. The drive runs through a tunnel of giant redwoods and blue cedars to the Category 1 homestead, with four great trees defining the eastern garden, elm, sycamore, Portuguese laurel and hornbeam, possibly planted as early as 1863. $15 per person, $10 on open garden days. Small groups by appointment year round, guided tours weekdays if booked ahead. Plant sales.
Stay the night: Christchurch.
Day five: Banks Peninsula
9.30am. The Giant's House, 68 Rue Balguerie, Akaroa which is an hour and a half from Christchurch on SH75. 6 stars. Josie Martin's sculpture mosaic garden on a north-facing hillside, with terraced rooms, a mosaic grand piano that plays, fountains, roses, lavender and mass planting. Opens 11am. $35 adults, $20 children 2 to 15, $32.50 students and gold card. Open daily except Christmas Day, 11am to 4pm October to April and 11am to 3pm May to September.
12.30pm. Lunch at the Artist's Palate Café, in the garden.
2.15pm. Ōhinetahi, Governors Bay, 1.5km past the hotel which is an hour and a quarter round the harbour. 6 stars. Formal rooms on two axes in the Arts and Crafts manner, with curved macrocarpa hedges, a box-edged rose garden, herbaceous borders to a gazebo, a walled red garden, pleached hornbeams on stilts, a potager around a marble capital, and woodland under trees planted by T.M. Potts in the 1870s. A swing bridge carries the cross axis into a bush walk. $25 adults and seniors. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm, September to end of March.
4.15pm. Frensham, 139 Old Tai Tapu Road, Halswell which is 25 minutes over Dyers Pass. 5 stars. A relaxed country garden of thirty years, with careful placing of colour, short and long views, and light filtered by judicious pruning. The entry is opposite the Bicycle Thief and the car park is at the end of the long drive.
Stay the night: Christchurch, 20 minutes on.
Day six: south to Timaru
10.15am. Ashburton Domain, 337 West Street, Ashburton which is an hour and a quarter south on SH1. 37.6 hectares of gardens of botanical significance under mature trees, the most significant reserve in the district.
12.30pm. Lunch at Geraldine, 40 minutes south.
2.15pm. Trevor Griffiths Rose Garden, Caroline Bay, Timaru which is half an hour on. 5 stars. Over 1,200 roses in geometric beds designed by Sir Miles Warren, gathered over a lifetime by the rosarian Trevor Griffiths and opened in December 2001. At its peak from late November into early December.
4.00pm. Timaru Botanic Gardens which is 5 minutes away. 5 stars. One of the oldest in the country, with Australian plants, conifers and species roses, a border of Canterbury natives, and endangered plants in the conservatory complex with a fern house alongside.
Stay the night: Timaru, which sets you up for Otago.
OTAGO
Three days working south from Oamaru to Dunedin, then the city gardens and the Otago Peninsula. This itinerary could be done in reverse order if you are starting in Dunedin. Several gardens are private and open by appointment, so please book before you travel.
Day one: Oamaru and the coast south
10.00am. Oamaru Public Gardens, Chelmer Street, Oamaru which is an hour and a half south of Timaru. 5 stars. Thirty-four acres set aside at the 1858 survey and opened in 1876, one of the oldest in the country. Mature planting along Oamaru Creek, a rose garden, a rhododendron dell and azalea lawn, a native fernery, a Chinese garden with a red lacquer bridge, an aviary and peacock house, the Carrara marble fountain and the 1926 Wonderland statue. Free.
11.45am. Brookfield Park, off Weston Road, 3.2km west of Oamaru which is 10 minutes on. 5 stars. Thirteen acres restored since 2003 within magnificent hedges, entered under a 100 year old weeping elm. A topiaried and cloud-pruned garden, woodland garden, cottage garden, stumpery, the Delos folly and the WW1 memorial avenue of oaks, with sculptures by Jeff Thomson and Warren Luke throughout. $10 per person, all proceeds to Blind Low Vision NZ Guide Dogs. Open Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 3pm by appointment, November to April. Picnic lunch on the top lawn loggia by prior arrangement.
1.30pm. Lunch at Brookfield by arrangement, or in Oamaru's Victorian precinct before leaving.
3.00pm. Doctor's Point, 20 minutes north of Dunedin, an hour and a quarter south of Oamaru. 5 stars. A 1¼ acre plant collection of over 1,300 species, many rare, made over 18 years from gorse and wilding pines. Bananas to trilliums, native alpines to carnivorous sarracenia, with an arboretum, woodland beds, and a fern and rhododendron dell. By appointment.
Stay the night: Dunedin.
Day two: Dunedin city
9.30am. Dunedin Botanic Garden, corner of Great King Street and Opoho Road. 6 stars, the country's first botanic garden, from 1863, on 28 hectares. The formal lower garden has the rose garden, herbaceous borders, herb garden and camellia collection; the rock garden climbs to the upper garden, with the four hectare Rhododendron Dell and its 3,000 plants, the native collection and the aviary. Winter glasshouse and information centre open 10am to 4pm. Free. Café on site.
12.30pm. Lunch in the city.
2.00pm. Lan Yuan, Dunedin Chinese Garden, 39 Queens Gardens, on the corner of Rattray and Cumberland Streets. An authentic late Ming, early Ching dynasty scholar's garden, opened in 2008, marking the Chinese contribution to Otago since the gold rush. A tea house on site.
3.30pm. Olveston Historic Home, 42 Royal Terrace. 5 stars. One acre around the 1906 Theomin house, with manicured lawns, a working kitchen garden, croquet lawn, greenhouse, and native and exotic planting shaped over 200 years. Gardens and gift shop free, house by guided tour.
Stay the night: Dunedin.
Day three: the Otago Peninsula
10.00am. Larnach Castle Garden, 145 Camp Road, Pukehiki which is 25 minutes from the city. 6 stars, a Garden of International Significance. Over a century old at 300 metres, restored by the Barker family since 1967, with a rock garden, South Seas garden, rainforest garden, laburnum arch, green room and reflection pond, and a marble fountain, exposed to wind and low rainfall and planted to a Gondwana and South Seas theme. Garden only $10, castle and garden $25. Open daily 9am to 5pm, to 7pm October to March.
12.30pm. Lunch at Larnach, in the grounds.
2.30pm. Hereweka Garden, 10 Hoopers Inlet Road which is 20 minutes on. 5 stars. Thirty-five years old in a hidden valley below Harbour Cone, with over 200 rhododendrons, wide perennial borders, old roses, a snowdrop and hellebore speciality, and a Gondwana-themed side valley of palms, cordylines and tree ferns, surrounded by the last stand of mature rimu and pōkākā on the peninsula, under QEII covenant. Adults and seniors $10, children free. By appointment, so phone first.
Stay the night: Dunedin, or at Hereweka or Larnach, both of which take guests.
southland
Two days across the bottom of the South Island, starting in Invercargill and working east to Gore. A good entry point if you've flown into Invercargill, and it joins up with the Otago itinerary at the end.
Day One : Invercargill
Queens Park, Feldwick Gates off Gala Street, Invercargill. 80 hectares north of the city centre. An avenue of English beech from the gates leads to the rose garden, rhododendron dell, azalea garden, Japanese garden, rock and herb gardens and a stumpery, with a winter garden glasshouse and cactus house, an aviary, animal enclosures, a tuatarium and cafés. Free.
Stay the night: Invercargill.
Day two: east to Gore
10.00am. Gore Public Gardens, central Gore which is an hour east of Invercargill. Set in the middle of town, host to the annual Rhododendron Festival in October, with an aviary, exotic trees, shrubs and rare conifers, and tree peonies among the plantings.
11.30am. Bannerman Park, Gore. Dating from the 1870s but planted from the 1960s, once known as Hidden Valley, with rhododendrons, conifers and silver birches, bog plants along the creek beds, and a small herd of red and fallow deer kept by the Southland Deerstalkers. Open daily, free.
12.30pm. Lunch in Gore.
Stay the night: Gore, or carry on north. Balclutha is an hour on, and Dunedin about an hour beyond that, which is where the Otago route begins.