Gardens - Takaka Midwinter Memories

I had a midwinter Christmas holiday and had an exquisite Turkey Christmas dinner in Takaka, Golden Bay, staying with friends who have an impressively lush garden. We were welcomed by Mr and Mrs Weka and two chicks fossicking around in the rose garden. 

The whole garden is flowering down one side with Rhododendrons and Camellias and the rest of the garden is lush bush. Many Tree ferns, of various sizes, sprawl up the  bank spreading their fronds sheltering other smaller ferns clinging to the bank below, further up there is a lush beech forest. 

The centre lawn is surrounded by box hedge. A canopy of naked cherry trees leads one through a pergola, covered with denuded rambling roses, into an intimate, secret, and neglected old brick paved barbecue area with lush native bush all around. To one side there is a large antique Sacklock Orion coal range, with a high brick chimney, built into the centre of a long rustic brick bench. An intricate brick oval shaped cavity is set into the bench to store coal. The coal range iron utensils hang cobweb covered in front of the bench and a cast iron kettle, with no spout, sits on top awaiting patiently to be fixed. The water heating tank attached to the coal range is begging to be filled and heated. On the other side of this area is a chunky, solid, wooden, table and benches all moss covered. Reminiscent of something you would find out the back of an old run down farm house. 

I was overwhelmed by one Rhododendron (see photo below), which I don’t know the name of, but the bush is absolutely smothered in pinkish white flowers. I could’t but imagine  how these beautiful flowers reflect the snow covered high rangers surrounding me in the Takaka Valley. The leaves mirroring the highly manicured, rich-green Takaka Valley farms. One of the most compliant, environmentally conscious, dairy farming areas in New Zealand. 

Through the middle of the valley flows the sparkling Takaka River out to Golden Bay.

A gardener’s dream holiday. Some may call it a little slice of heaven.