Dotted around New Zealand are a mesmerising array of gardens of regional and national significance, each one a testament to vision, patience and a deep connection to the land. Standing in a league of their own are the coveted six-star gardens (as recognised by the NZ Gardens Trust), showcasing horticultural excellence at its most refined.
Each of these Gardens of International Significance is a living work of art – meticulously curated spaces where design, plant knowledge and passion create experiences that linger long after you’ve left the gate. If you’re planning some 2026 travels and are a garden and landscape enthusiast, follow the geographical trail of these top 8 NZ Trust Great Gardens.
Omaio (Takatu Peninsula, Auckland)
Omaio is a six-star garden of International Significance set on an 18-acre coastal property on the Takatu Peninsula, north of Auckland, with wide views across Kawau Bay to Kawau, Goat and Rabbit Islands. The name means “place of peace, quiet and tranquillity”, and the garden has been developed to express exactly that – a calm, restorative landscape that sits comfortably within its native bush setting. The owner began creating the garden from scratch after settling on the property in 2005, shaping the design around existing landforms and vegetation, including a remarkable puriri estimated to be 1200–1500 years old. Planting is predominantly native, complemented by carefully selected exotics suited to the coastal conditions, with flowing, curved forms that echo the surrounding shoreline. Repetition of clipped specimens, strong foliage shapes and restrained textures provide continuity without competing with the natural bush canopy, under which clivia, hydrangea, arthropodium, bergenia, ligularia and ferns thrive. A crushed shell path known as Jane’s Lane leads to a raised koru-shaped vegetable garden and small orchard, while a network of named walking tracks and viewing points – including Johny’s Deck at the water’s edge – connect managed garden areas with regenerating forest. Recognised in 2023 by the American Horticultural Society as a garden meriting distinction, Omaio stands out for its sense of stillness, environmental fit and long-term personal stewardship.
Open by appointment. Refreshments available by prior arrangement. Accommodation available. omaio.co.nz
Mincher (Coatesville)
Mincher is a six-star garden of international significance, a large rural landscape just north of Auckland’s CBD, entered via a winding chestnut-lined drive that passes old orchards and streams before opening into expansive formal and park-like grounds. The Georgian-style house establishes a strong architectural framework that is echoed in the immediate garden with parterre planting and long perennial borders, before the design relaxes into more informal, cottage-style areas beneath mature apple trees. The wider property supports abundant birdlife and waterfowl, including grey teal, Aylesbury ducks, kingfishers, shining cuckoos, tūī and kākā, reflecting its diverse habitats. Beyond a willow-framed kissing gate, broad lawns and “The Ride” edged with pin oaks lead through mixed native and exotic plantings and a notable rhododendron walk known for its strong spring display. A traditional walled kitchen garden with Victorian-inspired glasshouses and an adjacent gardener’s cottage forms a separate, contemplative precinct. The landscape extends into Northland podocarp forest along a bush walk with lookouts over the Mahonui Stream, and includes specialist features such as a 60-metre bog garden, a croquet lawn encircled by clipped tōtara, and a pergola lined with espaliered Manchurian pears, demonstrating both horticultural range and design discipline.
Open by appointment. Adults $25pp. Not suitable for children. Email: minchergarden@xtra.co.nz
Tūpare (New Plymouth, Taranaki)
Tūpare is a six-star garden of international significance and one of Taranaki’s premier historic landscapes, combining an arts and crafts–style garden with a notable Chapman-Taylor-designed house overlooking the Waiwhakaiho River. Established in 1932 by Russell Matthews and his family and now owned by the community through the Taranaki Regional Council, the garden is structured with hard landscaping and major tree plantings that create shelter, atmosphere and long-term form. Winding hillside paths descend through a sequence of garden rooms and viewpoints to the river flats, where the character opens into a more pastoral landscape of specimen trees and open grass, shaped by wind and water movement. The benign Taranaki climate supports a wide range of trees, shrubs and perennials, with large conifers – including dawn redwood, kauri and giant redwood – forming the upper canopy, supported by deciduous highlights such as dove trees, tulip trees and liquidambar, noted for their autumn colour. Maples, magnolias, rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas and hydrangeas are widely used, complemented by cottage-style plantings and spring bulbs. Visitor facilities include river-flat picnic and barbecue areas, historical interpretation in the Gardener’s Cottage, seasonal guided house tours hosted by Friends of Tūpare, and a regular programme of public events and horticultural workshops, with the garden open daily and free to enter.
Open all day, every day with free entry. tupare.nz
Ōtari Wilton’s Bush (Wellington)
Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush is a six-star garden of international significance and a living centre for the conservation, study and display of New Zealand’s native flora, combining the five-hectare Ōtari Native Botanic Garden with the 100-hectare Wilton’s Bush Forest Reserve of ancient and regenerating forest. It is the country’s only public botanic garden dedicated solely to native plants, holding more than 1100 species, hybrids and cultivars drawn from habitats across New Zealand, from coastal and dune systems to subalpine and subantarctic environments. Established in 1926 by J.G. Mackenzie and botanist Dr Leonard Cockayne, the garden was founded to showcase and safeguard Aotearoa’s distinctive plant life, and today continues that role through research, education and active conservation. Key features include the National New Zealand Flax Collection (Te Kohinga Harakeke o Aotearoa), preserving traditional harakeke varieties gathered for weaving, a Threatened Species Garden highlighting at-risk plants and recovery successes, and a specialist native plant conservation laboratory focused on propagation, seed banking and cryopreservation. Long valued as a mahinga kai and cultural landscape within the rohe of Taranaki Whānui, Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Toa Rangatira, the area remains a place of learning and community engagement, supported by an active volunteer trust and a programme of guided walks, education initiatives and public events, alongside accessible tracks and picnic areas for visitors.
Open all day, every day with free entry. wellingtongardens.nz/our-gardens/otari-wiltons-bush
Flaxmere Garden (North Canterbury)
Flaxmere Garden is a six-star garden of international significance established more than 50 years ago on a North Canterbury sheep farm, designed at a bold landscape scale to frame sweeping mountain views towards the Southern Alps and create a strong sense of calm through water and spatial structure. The garden is closely aligned with its terraced riverbed setting, using long sightlines and carefully positioned plantings so that distant vistas become part of the composition. A defining feature is the extensive use of water, with a linked series of five ponds that introduce reflection, movement and habitat, supporting abundant birdlife and reinforcing the tranquil character. Built elements – including heavy recycled bridge timbers and hand-constructed stone walls – add weight and continuity, strengthening the country garden identity. Planting combines naturalistic and formal approaches, with large areas of New Zealand natives, woodland, roses and rhododendrons, creating seasonal variation and textural depth. Ongoing development continues to extend the design, including a new dry garden designed to rely solely on natural rainfall over summer. Long established as an international visitor destination, Flaxmere is noted for its scale, compositional discipline and integration with the surrounding landscape.
Open by appointment. Adults & seniors $20. Children 12 years and under no charge. flaxmeregarden.co.nz
Ōhinetahi (Governors Bay, Canterbury)
Ōhinetahi is a six-star garden of international significance, recognised as one of New Zealand’s finest arts and crafts–influenced landscapes. The garden is organised as a series of formal outdoor rooms of differing character, arranged along strong east–west and north–south axes that create clarity of movement and long sightlines. Close to the house, a formal lawn is framed by sweeping curved macrocarpa hedges at one end and balanced by a pool and pool house at the other. Along the main axis are a sequence of distinct garden spaces including a rose garden enclosed by box hedging, traditional herbaceous borders leading to a gazebo, a square walled red garden, and a raised walk of pleached hornbeams on stilts guiding visitors toward an oval lawn. Beyond the pool house sits a structured potager arranged around a large marble capital and glasshouse, reinforcing the blend of ornament and productivity. Steps from the gazebo descend into a woodland garden shaded by mature trees originally planted in the 1870s by former owner T. M. Potts, with a swing bridge extending the axis into a bush walk. Architectural fragments and contemporary sculpture are placed throughout, adding artistic counterpoint, while a recently incorporated south-eastern area – once part of the historic Potts garden – is being developed as a parkland extension.
Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am until 4pm September to end of March. Adults $25. ohinetahi.co.nz
The Giant’s House (Akaroa, Canterbury)
The Giant’s House is a six-star garden of international significance set on a sunny, sheltered north-facing hillside in Akaroa, combining exuberant planting with large-scale mosaic sculpture in a highly individual, immersive landscape. The garden surrounds a substantial historic house built of tōtara and kauri for Akaroa’s first BNZ bank manager, with level areas near the house and terraced gardens winding up the slope. Created by artist and horticulturist Josie Martin, the property merges art and gardening into a unified three-dimensional composition, where contemporary sculpture and historic structure are deliberately contrasted and balanced. A sequence of terraces and garden rooms is linked by winding paths and framed views to the valley and sea, with planting that includes roses, lavender, mixed borders, mass displays, vegetables, fruit, succulents, box hedging, annuals and perennials, all thriving within a favourable microclimate and tree shelter. Mosaic sculpture features – including a playable grand piano – are integrated with fountains and sound, encouraging interaction and pause. The on-site Artist’s Palate Café and contemporary art gallery extend the visitor experience, and the garden has received wide media coverage, including major television features in New Zealand and internationally, reflecting its distinctive creative vision and execution.
Open every day except 25 December, 11 am-4pm from 1 October to end April, 11am-3pm from 1 May-30 September. Garden & Gallery visit: No booking required. $35 per adult, $20 per child (aged 2-15). thegiantshouse.co.nz
Larnach Castle Garden (Otago Peninsula, Dunedin)
The Larnach Castle Garden is a six-star garden of international significance situated 25 minutes from Dunedin’s CBD on the Otago Peninsula, surrounding New Zealand’s only castle at an elevation of around 300 metres. Developed over more than a century, the garden is shaped by dramatic coastal scenery and challenging conditions of wind and relatively low rainfall yet supports a distinctive and rarely seen plant collection. Early shelter plantings dating back about 120 years – including extensive Cupressus macrocarpa and a prominent cedar – provide maturity and structure, while later development reflects a strong focus on New Zealand flora and southern hemisphere plant relationships. Garden areas include temperate rainforest-style plantings behind the ballroom, an avenue of mountain cabbage trees (Cordyline indivisa), and a specialised rock garden featuring rare New Zealand alpines, Chatham Island olearias, Myosotidium hortensia in both colour forms, and dracophyllum. A South Seas garden introduces pōhutukawa relatives, Pacific palms and associated flora, complemented by a small arboretum of southern beech, formal gardens, herbaceous borders and a laburnum tunnel with expansive southern views. Landscape design is disciplined to match the castle setting, with playful Alice in Wonderland figures adding visitor appeal. On-site facilities – including the Ballroom Café, specialist gift shop and plant nursery, wedding and event venues, and multiple accommodation options – make the garden a major heritage and tourism destination as well as a horticultural one.
Gardens & Grounds open daily from 9am, last admission 7pm (Oct-March) and 5pm (April-September). Adult $22.00, child (aged 0-14) no charge. larnachcastle.co.nz
The New Zealand Gardens Trust
The New Zealand Gardens Trust is the national body that identifies, assesses and promotes outstanding gardens across New Zealand through its independent star-rating system, recognising gardens of regional, national and international significance. Its website is a key reference source for garden information, visitor details, garden history and horticultural highlights, supporting both garden owners and visitors with trusted, up-to-date guidance: gardens.org.nz.
