Otago Farmhouse Gardens

Your included flight departs Auckland mid-morning. On arrival in Queenstown we head to Arrowtown for lunch at Provisions cafe, a restored historic building right in the heart of town - a great way to kick our New Zealand garden tour.

In the mid afternoon we make our way into Queenstown. Perhaps take a walk through the lakeside Botanic Gardens adjacent to your hotel or window shop in town before dining in this evening.

This morning we visit Janet Blair's Garden of National Significance near Lake Hayes. In the afternoon we meet Mike Henry who has developed his eight acre garden at Chantecler to include themed gardens from France, Italy, England, Japan and New Zealand as well as mass plantings of bulbs, rhododendrons, lavenders, azaleas, camellias and peonies. We return to Queenstown later in the day and dine out in this resort town on the shores of Lake Wakatipu this evening.

Our journey continues after breakfast, when we bid farewell to Queenstown and head for the big skies of the Maniototo Plain. We visit Clyde, once claimed to be the most populous town in New Zealand during the height of gold fever and then on to the historic settlement of Ophir for lunch at Pitches Store.

We visit Rayleen McNally’s garden at Poolburn, a real treasure trove of a garden growing around an original stone homestead. We call into the Vulcan Hotel in the old gold rush town of St Bathans before continuing on to Ranfurly and Hawkdun Lodge where we stay for two nights.

We start the day in Ranfurly’s  antique shops and their collections of Kiwiana and 1930s Art Deco. We visit Glenis and David Crutchley’s garden at Shortlands Station at an altitude of 2000 feet on Dansey Pass. We stop by the once thriving gold town of Naseby. Today it’s a popular holiday spot and the country’s curling capital with an International standard indoor curling rink.

We lunch with Jane Falconer in her beautiful garden at Clachanburn Station, a Garden of National Significance, on a deer farm at Patearoa with elevated views across the Maniototo. On our way back to Ranfurly we visit Val and Bryan McSkimming's garden. We dine in at our accommodation this evening.

Leaving Ranfurly we drive to the coast and stop for brunch at the famous seafood restaurant, Fleur’s Place in Moeraki, a favourite of British television chef Rick SteIn.  

We arrive in Oamaru where the Victorian Fete, each year with a different theme, is in full swing. The fete celebrates the town’s heritage amid streets of Oamaru Stone buildings, fine examples of 19th century architecture. Take in the sights and sounds - traditional craft demonstrations, market stalls, live music, dance, street theatre, penny farthings and locals dressed in Victorian finery. We dine out at Riverstone Kitchen this evening.

This morning we drive out of town to the Historic Places Trust Totara Estate for a step back in time. Totara is where lamb was first frozen and shipped to Britain in 1882. Hear the stories while you sit on hay bales as the billy tea brews to accompany your morning tea of scones, jam and cream.  

We'll see Peter and Bev Rodwell's Elderslie garden, the birthplace of Phar Lap and Janet Frame's house Linda Wilson at Parkside Gardens. We visit the Oamaru Public Gardens created in 1876 and laid out in a series of Victorian inspired “rooms”. We dine out this evening at the Star and Garter in the old precinct. 

We drive north to the Miles Warren designed rose garden in Timaru and on to Carew to visit a mid-Canterbury farmhouse for a private lunch hosted by the Woodhouse family. Flourishing in the garden are Himalayan Lilies, 3 metres tall. They are just about to bloom when we visit, fingers crossed!

In the mid afternoon we continue north up the Canterbury Plains to Christchurch internationally famed as ‘The Garden City’ due to its well-established expansive parks and public gardens. Our flight departs for Auckland in the early evening. Thank you for travelling with MoaTours.