Hamilton – New Plymouth. Day 2

Monday 24^th March 2025

Day 2  Hamilton – New Plymouth

 

Today we explored the Hamilton Gardens for hours.  These gardens have been designed to create dozens of garden rooms themed to various cultures and periods of time. About 5 or 6 garden rooms would radiate off a central courtyard.

Off the Time Court with its large sundial and bronzed Alice in Wonderland tea party we found our way to the Tudor Garden, the Tropical Garden and the Surrealist Garden.  From the Braithwaite Court we found the Mansfield Garden complete with a tennis court all set for a garden party. A fairly new addition is the Ancient Egyptian Garden.  Cloud Court leads to a variety of international gardens including the Chinese Scholars’ Garden, Indian Charbagh Garden, Italian Renaissance Garden and the Japanese Garden of Contemplation.

We had enjoyed breakfast at the beginning of the day, took a break for coffee and finished off later in the day with a Kapiti ice cream.  A busy day, but we had to make a move and find some accommodation for the night further to the south.  We took a drive out towards the coast – quite spectacular scenery along the way (winding through the mountains) and finally found ourselves in New Plymouth.  We stayed just out of town on Burgess Hill, unfortunately their restaurant was closed on Monday night, so we dined in town at Arboria – a mix of everything, before retreating to our comfy unit at One Burgess Hill.