Otago Farmhouse Gardens

We fly into Queenstown and visit picturesque Stoneridge Estate Garden above Lake Hayes. 

We drive to Annabel and Bruce Russell’s home for a relaxed lunch in the Gibbston Valley where the first commercial vineyard was planted in the 1980s. We check into Hotel Novotel Queenstown Lakeside for two nights and dine in this evening. Our hotel is adjacent to the Botanic Gardens.

We visit two gardens of National Significance, Janet Blair's at Lake Hayes and lunch nearby at Arrowtown at Provisions. There's plenty of time to check out the shops in Arrowtown and stroll along the riverbank.

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 bid farewell to Queenstown and call into 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.

Out in the big skies of the Maniototo Plain we visit Rayleen McNally’s garden at Poolburn, a real treasure trove surrounding an original stone homestead. We call in for refreshments at the Vulcan Hotel, St Bathans and visit Naseby before continuing to Ranfurly and Hawkdun Lodge.

We call into Mary and Mac Wright’s hillside garden and Fay-Ann and Kelvin Thompson's Glen Eden Station before enjoying a tour and tasting at John and Susie Elliott's Lammermoor Station distillery and garden,

We lunch with Jane Falconer in her garden of National Significance at Clachanburn Station and visit the Art Deco Gallery in Ranfurly on our return.

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 - live music, dance, street theatre and penny farthings and locals dressed in Victorian finery. 

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 lunch with Peter and Bev Rodwell at historic Elderslie Estate and visit Jen Rendell's painstakingly restored Brookfield House and Garden. We dine out at the Star and Garter in the old precinct. 

We visit Gloria and Ian Hurst’s Willowpark with its lush plantings, ponds, lawns and trees in Papakaio and lunch at Te Timata, Boo and Hamish Woodhouse’s Canterbury farmhouse.

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.