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New Zealand North Island – Hollywood Garden at Hamilton Gardens

This “garden” in Hamilton Gardens, NZ just did not evoke Hollywood to us. Only the image of Marilyn Monroe gives a hint of what it is. And yes, there’s the ubiquitous swimming pool you would find in Hollywood, but who’s in it?

New Zealand North Island – Hamilton Gardens

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, and was the original Paradise Garden. This form of garden spread throughout the Muslim world between the 8th and 18th centuries, from Asia to North Africa to Spain. Paradise Gardens became a distinctive art form in the 16th & 17th centuries under Mughal rulers and then Hindu aristocracy. This type of garden was regarded as an icon for the universe itself. You can feel the breezes, hear water gurgling and smell the perfumes of flowers forming a real living carpet. Many weddings take place in this location.

The garden that has been developed here at Hamilton Gardens is the Riverside Garden, with a plan very similar to the Taj Mahal on a very much smaller scale.

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New Zealand: Rotorua – Maori Land

Smoke from thermal pits were and are a feature of the terrain around Rotorua, New Zealand, especially in the indigenous Maori land. It made cooking pretty darn easy.

 

New Zealand: Auckland – Colin McCahon Foremost Artist in New Zealand

1919 was the centennial year of artist Colin McCahon’s birth so the Auckland Art Gallery set up an full exhibit of the breadth of his work, McCahon said of his work, “My painting is almost autobiographical. It tells you where I am at any given time” His type of art shifts as he moves to new locations. McCahon was a driving force for art in NZ; He helped run the Auckland CityArt gallery, installed exhibitions, taught art classes and painted too.

New Zealand: Waitakere – The Kauri trees of New Zealand

The Kauri trees are endangered so it’s really special when you can go into a forest and see quite of few very old ones. The Arataki Visitor Centre goes to great lengths to preserve and protect them. You can climb up a high trail and see then at the top reaching for the sky. The circular cluster is called The Cathedral.

New Zealand: Waitakere – Ferns of New Zealand

In the trails outside the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere NZ, you can get lost in the sea of ferns.

New Zealand: Waitakere – New Zealand’s Silver Fern

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The silver fern has been a symbol of New Zealand since the 1880s. To Maori, the shape of the fronds stood for strength, resistance, and power. To other New Zealanders, it’s exemplifies their homeland as it grows throughout the country from the North Island down to the coast of the South Island. It is the most abundant of all ferns in New Zealand. You can find it on all kinds of souvenirs. We bought sports socks with ferns on them as a momento of New Zealanders who enjoy lots of physical activity. 

New Zealand: Waitakere -Arataki Visitor Centre

You can take quiet walks in Waitakere’s Arataki Visitor Centre. These steps lead up and up and up to the treetop Cathedral of ancient Kauri trees. Worth the walk.

New Zealand: Waitakere – Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere NZ

It’s surprising to find this peace and quiet in this amazing location outside the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere so close to the bustling city of Auckland. These steps take you eventually up up up to the sky view. 

New Zealand: Waitakere – Life From Death

We liked it when this sign on an Arataki trail in Waitakere NZ teaches us how dead trees are a life system for other life forms: slaters, cockroaches, millipedes, wetas, spiders live on the decay.