2024 Taranaki Garden Festival - a new 5 day New Zealand Tour
Join our new tour itinerary to one of New Zealand's iconic garden festivals , the Taranaki Garden Festival....
This world renowned event showcases stunning public and private gardens of New Plymouth and the Taranaki region.
Our new itinerary this year allows us 4 nights in New Plymouth, so plenty of time to see the many great gardens plus some other extras over 3 full days. We include the Tawhiti Museum in Hawera, plus an afternoon for you to explore the city on your own for some retail therapy or to visit the city museums.
Day 1 - Departing the Bay of Plenty we head west, traversing the Waikato and then south through the King Country, with a stop for morning tea, before continuing on to Te Kuiti for a quick rest stop, chance to see the Colin Meads statue. This legendary All Black is the favourite son of this small King Country town.
Suitably refreshed we continue towards the rugged west coast for our lunch stop at Mokau and a chance to try some of the famous west coast whitebait at the local cafe, chance for a short visit to the newly renovated Mokau Museum to learn a little of the history of this West Coast settlement.
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It's then just an easy hours drive south along the coast to New Plymouth, our base for the next 4 nights. Tonight, we dine from the full a la carte menu at our city central 4 star hotel. It's restaurant, The Orangery, is rated number 1 on TripAdvisor in New Plymouth.
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Days 2, 3 and 4 - The Taranaki Garden Festival was established in 1987 and the region is home to some of New Zealand’s most spectacular public and private gardens. Our trip is all about exploring many of the gardens and homesteads in the area.
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Working with the Garden Festival managers, we will select an area each day and plan to visit the best gardens possible - making sure that we incorporate a range of diverse garden styles to really make the trip as interesting as possible. A detailed itinerary will be available closer to the festival date when the gardens in the festival are confirmed.
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While the trip is all about the gardens, we try and include some other highlights the region has to offer.
We include a visit to one of New Zealand's most impressive private museums, The Tawhiti Museum in Hawea. The Museum is a truly unique enterprise and is the creation of artist Nigel Ogle, the attention to detail is simply stunning. Now widely acclaimed as one of the most innovative museums in New Zealand, Tawhiti uses life size exhibits and scale models to capture the history of New Zealand in a series of super-realistic displays, all designed and built on the premises.
Whats Included:
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5 days on tour
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4 nights quality accommodation
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Door to door service (Tauranga area)
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Quality air-conditioned vehicle
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Full commentary by your guide
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A la carte dinners each day
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One lunch
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Full breakfast each day
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The Tawhiti Museum at Hawera
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Visit to Pukekura Park Gardens
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Visit to Pukeiti Gardens
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Visit to Tupare House & Gardens
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Private homesteads & gardens
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All garden entry charges
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You will see:
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Stunning scenery throughout
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Amazing gardens and scenery
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Taranaki and The King Country
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New Plymouth city sights
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A single room supplement is $ 425.00
We include visits to many of the world class public gardens New Plymouth is famous for - such as the Tupare homestead and garden situated on the outskirts of the city. Tupare is an arts and crafts inspired property with secluded gardens and elegant borders. A real delight is wandering the winding paths cut out of the hill-side leading to surprising vistas and intimate garden rooms. In addition to the beautiful hard landscaping, stately plantings of trees create shelter and a very magical atmosphere.
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A real highlight of the festival is the Pukeiti Garden, located on the lower slopes of Mount Taranaki. The garden hosts one of the world’s finest collections of rhododendrons, as well as 360 hectares of exotic and native species, so all interests will be catered for here.
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Pukeiti's flowering season starts in July when the first of the giants awake; large-leaf rhododendrons flowering amongst the rainforest canopy. Camellias and large magnolias follow and by November the garden is alive with colour from flower and foliage with complementary herbaceous plantings - alpines, primulas, hostas and bulb varieties all on display. Pukeiti Garden, will also be our location for lunch (your cost) at the aptly named Rainforest Eatery.
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Another stunning public garden located in the centre of New Plymouth is Pukekura Park. The park spans 52 hectares and is a nationally significant park with a large exotic specimen tree collection, inter-planted within an area of luxuriant native bush. Highlights are the native orchid and fern collections housed in a partially sunken conservatory. With many special display gardens, all with the stunning backdrop and views of Mount Taranaki, this is a must see destination.
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If the weather is suitable we usually include a visit to the North Egmont visitor centre and cafe, located at the highest point we can reach by road on the slopes of Mount Taranaki. Time here to take a short walk or just relax and enjoy the stunning scenery from the almost 900m elevation.
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Every year there are many new additions to the festival program and we work with the festival managers to find the best ones. As soon as the full program is released we will update the web site to give details of the gardens we have selected. All garden entry charges are included in the tour cost.
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We leave an afternoon free for you to explore New Plymouth and our hotel is just a 10 minute walk from the central city - but we can drop you off and arrange a pickup later if you prefer. Some popular destinations are the Puke Ariki Museum, the Govett Brewster Art Gallery and Len Lye Centre and the Wind Wand on the waterfront.
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Day 5 - After our last breakfast together we depart New Plymouth for our drive North back to Tauranga, retracing our route from day 1. We make a comfort stop again at the small settlement of Mokau, time for a morning coffee or if you want, some more of the local New Zealand delicacy - Whitebait.
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Continuing onwards, our route takes us through extensive and rugged farmland to another private garden which will be our lunch stop today. Hidden in the hills close to Te Kuiti, this garden has been a real labour of love. We will enjoy a light lunch on the homestead veranda before departing.
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Following our lunch stop we continue on to Tauranga, arriving home early evening.
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All Hinterland multi-day tours can be taken by clients from any region of New Zealand or Australia. Please contact us for details. Additional charges may apply.
​* Please note, that unless specified in the itinerary we do not usually include the cost of lunches or morning and afternoon tea stops in the tour cost, but we always make stops where there are a range of options available so you can choose what you want, and have flexibility to do things on your own if you wish.