It’s a highlight-a-day on this extraordinary tour of the wildly divergent gardens of the North Island of New Zealand. Enthusiasm and discernment emanate from each private garden, large and small, from each piece of carefully managed bushland, and, most surprisingly, from the most horticulturally exciting cemetery you’ll ever set foot in.

Tour Dates: 16th - 25th November, 2024

DAY 1 - Saturday 16th November

Our tour starts with a welcome dinner, after checking into the very cool Naumi hotel in the heart of Wellington.

Meals included: Welcome Dinner, Wellington

Accommodation: Naumi Hotel, Wellington

DAY 2 - Sunday 17th November

Designer Ross Palmer’s fabulously precarious garden is our destination this morning - reached from the street by a ‘travelator’ in the ‘burbs of Wellington. Dramatically steep, the garden contains only a few small platforms of level land, but Ross has turned this challenge to great advantage.

Then in the afternoon we’ll head to Otari-Wilson’s bush - a piece of remarkable remnant Wellington forest - with Ross as our guide. I’m so looking forward to his commentary, steeped as he is in the cultural history and botany of the local plants.

Gardens: Ross Palmer’s Garden, Otai-Wilson’s Bush      

Accommodation: Naumi Hotel, Wellington

DAY 3 - Monday 18th November

Today we’ll start out on foot, and catch the old cable car up to the highest point of the Wellington Botanic Gardens. The cable car was opened in 1902, and was an immediate and remarkable success, opening up the otherwise inaccessible hills surrounding Wellington to settlement. Then, using our altitude to advantage, we’ll walk down the spine of the gardens, finishing up at the traditional rose garden at sea level.

In the afternoon, we’ll meet designer Rachael Matthews of HEDGE Garden Design and Nursery. Rachael is frequently designing for tight city spaces, so has worked up a range of fabulous principles to apply in cramped conditions and very narrow garden beds. Rachael will talk us through these principles as they apply to her own home garden, then show us a few of her local projects.

Gardens: Wellington Botanic Gardens and Rachel Matthew’s gardens

Meals included: Packed lunch from La Coche

Accommodation: Naumi Hotel, Wellington

DAY 4 - Tuesday 19th November

Off to New Plymouth, via Greenhaugh, in Palmerston North!

Greenhaugh is the astonishing creation, over four decades, of committed home gardener Lynne Atkins. The garden boasts deep rose beds and rivers of perennials, with irises a speciality, but Lynne’s interest extends far further, being an accomplished seed-sower. Her tiny pots of rare bulb seeds under germination made me drool!

Lynne has invited us into the house for lunch, which is crammed with her collections of objet d’art from Africa and India, and her own photography. According to Lynne, this is a first!

Gardens: Greenhaugh

Meals included: Lunch at Giraffe House, Greenhaugh

Accommodation: Novotel, New Plymouth

DAY 5 - Wednesday 20th November

Another first, on a Travelling Masterclass, is a visit to a cemetery! Te Henui cemetery represents the amazing energy and commitment of ‘Cemetery Sue’ - Susan Oliver - who with her team of three or four volunteers has transformed the site into a highly colourful and wonderfully diverse garden. Sue is going to meet us there, and chat to us about what it takes to manage and maintain this extraordinary creation.

Then we’ll spend the afternoon at Pukeiti, containing one of the worlds largest collections of rhododendrons and other exotics, on the side of Mount Taranaki, and boasting a rainfall of between 3 - 4m per annum! Even the drive in is mind-blowing, with everything about the vegetation and the landscape witnessing to this outrageous rainfall.

Gardens: Te Henui cemetery and Pukeiti

Meals included: Dinner at The Social Kitchen

Accommodation: Novotel, New Plymouth

DAY 6 - Thursday 21st November

Tupare was once a remarkable private garden, and is now in the hands of, and beautifully maintained by, the local council. I was impressed by both the site and trees in the garden proper, but truly fell for this place when I reached the river flats, that have been simply and beautifully upgraded with subtle landscape detail.

Then we’re off to Tikorangi. Rachael Matthews insisted that I try to see this garden last November, describing it as ‘Ninfa without the ruins’. The description was apt, with mown paths along clear streams, and delighted Abbey Jury, who owns this garden with her husband Mark. Mark’s father started the work on breeding magnolias, and Abbie and Mark have continued the program, giving rise to such superstars as ‘Vulcan’, 'Black Tulip’ and ‘Star Wars’.

Gardens: Tupare and Tikorangi

Accommodation: Novotel, New Plymouth

DAY 7 - Friday 22nd November

We’re heading to Auckland today, but will break the journey to visit the multi-award winning Hamilton Gardens.  Made up of a collection of gardens of various styles and cultural origins, I admit I was skeptical about the very idea. But I was very soon disarmed, then intrigued, then charmed by it. There’s some fun stuff here, and there’s some truly important stuff here.

Gardens: Hamilton Gardens

Meals included: Dinner in Auckland

Accommodation: The Observatory, Christchurch

DAY 8 - Saturday 23rd November

The plan is to start the morning at Auckland Botanic Gardens, where a previous Travelling Masterclass attendee is in charge of the rose collections, and is challenging the conventions about mixing roses and NZ natives. I would have thought it couldn’t be done. Joanna thinks otherwise!

Then in the afternoon, we’re off to Ayrlies, one of the most ambitious contemporary private gardens you’ll see anywhere. The sixty-year-long passion-project of Bev McConnell, this enormous garden covers the spectrum of highly sophisticated horticulture through to wetland creation. When I first visited Ayrlies, Bev had imported a head gardener from Sissinghurst!

Gardens: Auckland Botanic Gardens and Ayrlies

Accommodation: Hilton Auckland

DAY 9 - Sunday 24th November

We’ll give this day over entirely to the Auckland Garden DesignFest. Organised by the New Zealand Garden Designers Society, this event occurs on one weekend every second year. The gardens are all private and professionally designed, representing a broad range of styles. It’s a great opportunity to access the work of the cream of New Zealand’s garden designers.

Gardens: Auckland Garden DesignFest

Meals included: Lunch and Farewell dinner in Auckland

Accommodation: Hilton Auckland