One of Queenstown’s most spectacular gardens has hosted its final open weekend.
Chantecler, at Lower Shotover, which was recognised as a "garden of national significance" by the New Zealand Gardens Trust, is owned by Mike and Maureen Henry who have comprehensively developed the 5-hectare property.
Mr Henry, originally from South Africa, said until that point his only gardening experience was growing Brussels sprouts at boarding school.
He moved to New Zealand when he was 21 and then met his wife of 54 years.
Initially, the garden of Chantecler — named after a country hotel in South Africa — was a "paddock full of sheep", with a fence about 20m beyond the original 1960s-style house, and a few big trees, used as a windbreak.
Mr Henry said when those were planted, some "nice exotic trees", including four huge sequoia redwoods and two dawn redwoods — those "would be two of the oldest in the world outside of China".
Initially, the couple focused on the garden around the house — it is now a more formal garden, with topiaries, about 300 roses, perennials, sculptures and a fountain.
"[We] started developing different parts of the garden, I then decided ‘why don’t we theme them a little bit?"’
Below the house — "probably my favourite part of the garden" — is the English garden.
There are 1000 rhododendrons and azaleas, magnolias, camellias and "all of those plants you see in the English gardens", underplanted with hydrangeas, trilliums, and hostas, for example.
Around the pool — which features an iron gate, pre-dating Napoleon — the garden took on a Mediterranean theme, above that was a Japanese garden, and nearby a gully full of grass had been replaced with 5000 native plants.
There was also a summer garden, a woodland walk and a meadow garden, which included about 100,000 daffodils.
Mr Henry estimated he had welcomed about 30,000 people at his property over the past 15 years.
He had been involved in Queenstown’s Plunket garden fundraisers since their inception.
But the couple had decided it was time to shut the gates.
"I think it’s the last hurrah — we’re nearly 80.
"The place has got to look nice for visitors to enjoy it and to do that, it’s a lot of pressure."
