My Travels.....New Zealand's Annual Garden Marlborough Festival

New Zealand is beautiful, no doubts, no buts, it is a superb and stunning country. The landscapes and terrain, the people, and the wildlife, it’s just beautiful. October 2018 was my first trip back to NZ in 15 years, and a first visit for my travel companion, my Dad. This was our 4 week awesome road trip around NZ, a showcase of the best of both North and South islands. I try to incorporate several events or occasions into my trips, something unique to experience and remember. Whether planned or spontaneous, these are the experiences that create the moments that build amazing memories, even the embarrassing ones!

The garden festival in early November is at the top of the South Island in the Marlborough area. Famous for the beautiful Marlborough Sounds, with its stunning coastline, superb walking and cycling tracks, water activities and seafood. Further inland are valleys of vines producing award winning Sauvignon Blanc wines, superb food, and amazing unique arts and crafts. The Garden Marlborough festival celebrates this stunning landscape in early summer, a magical time for any country. It showcases the very best the region has to offer with a range of garden tours, and events.

I had booked us on the East Coast and Awatere Valley gardens tour. Boarding our bus early that morning it was a beautiful sunny warm day, and our travel companions some very enthusiastic and friendly Kiwis!

Our first stop was Barewood Garden, a ‘cottage’ style garden. A mix of formal flower beds and perfect lawn with some other more relaxed planting structure. The best Wisteria you will ever see! But basically, it was just awesome! And very colourful! This was a rockstar of gardens!

Our kiwi companions were in full chitter chatter flow as we travelled on to our next garden, Winterhome. Situated on the East Coast this property is the ultimate retirement dream, beautiful formal gardens with a mix of native and tropical plants. A fabulous house with all the usual toys (tennis court etc), looking out over some stunning coastline and the Pacific Ocean. Yep, this was very nice!

The next garden was Paripuma, still on the coast this garden was very different to the previous two. Primarily native plants, with a few tropical plants thrown in, it had a Mediterranean feel to it. That sounds weird? But it worked, and it was pretty unique!

The Kiwis had started to tire now, the bus was quiet as we made our way back to Blenheim, our last garden was in a beautiful valley. A modest but beautiful house sat in the middle of several acres of huge garden, consisting of perfect lawn and flower beds of roses and other beautiful plants, (I appreciate them, but I not good at knowing the names!). But what I remember the most was the many amazing mature trees and the prolific and diverse bird song. Amazing! And a great end to a superb day.