10 Days In New Zealand – Hamilton Gardens

Well, it’s been a long time since my last post. March was a crazy month and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get away from me. Time flies when you’re having fun they say! Without further ado, let’s get back into it!

Halfway through our trip it was time to drive down from the north part of the island. After the previous day, we learned our lesson regarding planned times and we decided that we would stop just south of Auckland. It was going to be a day of strictly driving with no other planned activities. This turned out to be a wise decision as we got stuck at some road construction about halfway through our trip. Most highways in New Zealand that we drove on were dual lane highways. This meant that any construction on the road required single lane alternating traffic. On a major highway, that leads to some pretty serious backups. We spent close to 3 hours waiting to get through. Which turned our 5 hour trip into 9. needless to say, by the time we got to Hamilton, all we wanted to do was sleep.

This was a one night stop so the next day we got up early to head to Taupo. Taupo is a 2 hour trip from Hamilton, so we decided to take the morning and explore the Hamilton Gardens that came highly recommended by a friend living in Auckland. Now, being a Canadian, I’m not used to large gardens. Unless they’re indoors such as the Devonian Gardens. Between a short growing season and winter that comes and kills everything, outdoor gardens here are not something I’m used to.

The Hamilton Gardens were so much larger and more beautiful than I was imagining. There’s two parts to the garden. Travelling New Zealand can be fairly expensive so we were thrilled to learn that admission was free! (This will be going up to $20 in Spring of 2024). We got there, got our maps, and off we went. The gardens were split up into themes and have been expertly curated to reflect each of them.

Every time we rounded a corner we were greeted with a beautiful collection of flowers and plants. There are a total of 27 different gardens on the grounds. We didn’t get a chance to see all of them before it was time to leave but I was blown away at the meticulous care and dedication that the staff at the gardens paid to every inch of the place. You can find Paradise, Fantasy, Rose, and Landscape collections and there is a selection of productive gardens that exist here as well. These include a herb garden, a sustainable back yard, a Te Parapara Garden (Traditional Māori Garden), and a kitchen garden, all showcasing the traditional gardening techniques used in New Zealand’s history. All of the plants grown are donated to charities and families in need and that’s pretty cool if you ask me.

The day started with a spit of rain and I was concerned this garden adventure was going to turn into a bit of a wet one. Fortunately for us, the travel gods looked down and made the sun come out. Maybe I’m getting old but there was something truly peaceful about walking around all of the plants that were growing there. it was fairly busy but a lot of the time I felt like we were the only ones around. All I wanted to do was grab a book and sit and read until the sun fell lazily behind the horizon.

The gardens are located 2 hours from Auckland and 2 hours from Taupo. Even as a day trip, they’re worth the visit. The size and variety of plants and flowers they have growing there are something to be rivaled around the world.