Welcome to Friars' Gardens of New Zealand open to visit!

If you like looking at gardens, then this site is for you.

Check out our North Island or South Island Gardens.
These are some of the best in the country.

Or better still come for a visit - there are gardens to suit all needs and all tastes - small/large, flat/hilly, city/rural, native/exotic, alpine/subtropical, green/colourful, and everything in between.

Most gardens are private and open by appointment.
Others are public and can be visited anytime. 

Design an itinerary to suit yourself or your group. After visiting the North Island gardens, take a ferry from Wellington across the Cook Strait and  look at what the South Island has to offer. For such a small country, New Zealand has a huge variety and range of different gardens for the visitor.

Enjoy your visit! Kia ora ♥



Garden of the month:

Dursley Garden - Wairarapa

In 1916 Alfred Buxton designed the garden, then known as Te Rangi Pai. The name was changed to Dursley in the 1930s, but the lines of Buxton’s landscaping are still apparent today. A 1917 arbutus and weeping birch give stature, with some original rose bushes featuring among the 300 now growing throughout the garden. Many other established trees, underplanted with naturalised bulbs, form a woodland carpeted with spring bulbs, including daffodils, bluebells, galanthus and grape hyacinths, then drifts of cyclamens in autumn. Long views under the trees are retained in a natural, not contrived, way, with pathways through deciduous azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias and tree peonies, their bright colours downplayed by shadows from the canopy overhead.

In summer, hundreds of lillies of 15–20 varieties including Turk’s-cap lilies (L. martagon) feature throughout the woodland area, and a very large clump of California “tree” poppies (Romneya coulteri) is striking when in full bloom. Three herbaceous borders are sited to provide views from the house. When the Callaghans took over the garden in 1972 they removed seven truckloads of debris before beginning to recover the garden area around the flowing driveway. Care has been taken not to plant out the panoramic views to the hills, appreciated from the seats which abound for visitors to sit and listen to the birds in the quiet, tranquil atmosphere.