Travelsmartplanet

Tags: discovernewzealand, History, iamtb, New Zealand, newzealand, NZ, nzmustdo, sights, travelislife, travelnewzealand, traveltheglobe, welivetotravel, world

Get your phone’s ready to snap pix of the silly corrugated iron sculptures all over this town. Here’s a cute story: In 1986, Otorohanga briefly changed its name to “Harrodsville”. This was to protest the threat of a lawsuit against restaurateur, Henry Harrod of Palmerston North. Mohamed Al Fayed (yes that one – Diana’s boyfriend’s father), was the owner of Harrod’s department store in London and wanted him to change the name of his restaurant.
As a show of solidarity for Henry Harrod, the District Council suggested that every business in Otorohanga change its name to “Harrods”. The town’s name was even temporarily changed to Harrodsville. After being mocked in the British newspapers, Al Fayed dropped the legal action and Harrodsville and its shops reverted to their former names.

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You cannot pass thru Otorohanga, NZ without stopping for a photo op of their fun corrugated iron sculptures which cover the town. They’re on buildings, on lampposts and sitting as giant sculptures. There’s main street murals too. Here’s a building entirely designed as a wolf.

Tags: art, artist, building, corrugated, design, designed, facade, Hamilton, iron, lamppost, main, main street, mural, New Zealand, North Island, Otorohanga, photo op, sculpture, street, street art, street mural, town, Waikato, Wolf

Invoking the floral colours of an intricate Indian rug, the Indian Char Bagh Garden at Hamilton Gardens definitely has the feel of India. A bagh is an enclosed 4-part garden 8 -18th century Muslim world Asia to north Africa to Spain, paradise gardens universal garden became a distinctive art form in 16 & 17th century under mughal Rulers and then Hindu aristocracy poetic secret pleasure gardens feel breezes, hear water gurgling perfume of flowers real living carpet.

Tags: 16th century, 17th-century, 18th-century, Africa, aristocracy, art, art form, Asia, bagh, botanic garden, botanical, breeze, carpet, century, Char Bagh, Char Bagh Garden, colour, distinctive, Emperor, enclosed, floral, flowers, form, garden, gardens, gurgling, Hamilton, Hamilton Gardens, Hindu, Indian, Indian rug, intricate, living, mughal, Muslim, New Zealand, North, North Africa, Northern Island, Paradise, paradise gardens, perfume, pleasure, poetic, rug, Ruler, secret, secret pleasure, sights, sightseeing, Spain, tour, tourist, travelblogger, universal, water, world

This fun animal pool garden is just one of creative gardens in the Hamilton Gardens. Some of the others are: English Flower Garden, Italian Renaissance Garden, Te Parapara Garden, Japanese Garden of Contemplation, Tudor Garden and Indian Char Bagh Garden.

Tags: animal, botanical, botanical garden, Char Bagh, Contemplation, creative, English, English Flower, flower, garden, Hamilton Gardens, Indian, Indian Char Bagh, Italian, Italian Renaissance, Japanese, Japanese Garden, Japanese Garden of Contemplation, landscape, New Zealand, pool, Renaissance, sculpture, sights, sightseeing, Te Parapara, tour, tourist, travelblogger, Tudor, Tudor Garden, water, water feature

Here is the traditional entrance to the Te Parapara Garden in Hamilton Gardens, NZ. Notice the carved face sticking out his tongue. This is a gesture you would see in Maori dancing and is a method of intimidating invaders.

Tags: carved, carved face, dancing, entrance, face, garden, gardens, gesture, Hamilton, Hamilton Gardens, intimidating, invader, Maori, Maori dancing, method, New Zealand, sights, sightseeing, Te Parapara, tongue, tour, tourist, traditional, travelblogger, Waikato

In the 16^th century the English aristocracy were fascinated by intricate geometric patterns. These Tudor Garden reflects this. There were also knot gardens and some were called fantasy gardens where fantasy plays were held.  Notice the carved heraldic beasts on poles: griffin, dragon, centaur, phoenix, unicorn, satyr and sea serpent. See if you can find “Bottom”  from Shakespeare’s play Midsummer Nights’ Dream.

Tags: 16th, 16th century, aristocracy, beast, bottom, carved, Centaur, century, dragon, English, fantasy, fantasy play, garden, gardens, geometric, griffin, Hamilton, Hamilton Gardens, heraldic, heraldic beast, intricate, knot, knot garden, Midsummer Nights' Dream, New Zealand, pattern, phoenix, play, pole, satyr, sea, sea serpent, serpent, Shakespeare, sights, sightseeing, tour, tourist, travelblogger, Tudor, unicorn

A favorite sculpture in the Zealong Tea Estate sculpture garden was this long tea pot dragon with the estate building in the rear.

Tags: building, certified, certified organic, Cup, cup of tea, dragon, drink, estate, famous, garden, Gordonton, High Tea, lived, Lu Yu, New Zealand, NZ grown, NZ tea, organic, organic tea, organic. New Zealand grown, plantation, sculpture, sculpture garden, sculpture walk, sights, sightseeing, tea, tea farm, tea house, tea plantation, tea pot, tea tour, tour, tourist, travel, travel media, travelblogger, visit, Waikato, walk, water, work, world, Zealong, Zealong Tea, Zealong Tea Estate

You can visit the Zealong Tea Estate in New Zealand, walk the sculpture walk, take a tea tour, sip tea in the tea house of, of course, shop in the tea retail shop.

Tags: certified, certified organic, estate, Gordonton, High Tea, New Zealand, organic, organic tea, organic. New Zealand grown, plantation, retail, sculpture, shop, sights, sightseeing, tea, tea farm, tea house, tea plantation, tea tour, tour, tourist, travelblogger, visit, walk, Zealong, Zealong Tea Estate

When your name is Stanley, it’s a bit of a thrill to have a street named after you…This one is in Auckland, New Zealand.

Tags: Auckland Domain, city, city view, name, New Zealand, New Zealand trip, sights, sightseeing, Stanley, Stanley street, street, street name, street view, tour, tourist, travelblogger, trip, view