Woodlands Estate - just outside Hamilton

Saturday began with promises of cold, wet and gloomy weather and so we decided to take a little trip out of Hamilton and visit the Woodlands Estate just outside the city. The gardens surrounding the old homestead are truly spectacular and for the most part, are donning the Autumn shades which are so prevalent in New Zealand at the moment. We wandered around the gardens of the estate and took a couple of photographs to give you an idea of how pretty it is there.

This old bench stands sedately beside the lake and although it really looks as though it must be on it's last legs and will surely crumble into a heap of woodchips very soon, Jo tried it (a little gingerly, I admit) and assures me that it is surprisingly sturdy and strong in spite of it's appearance! Some of the trees in the gardens are clearly extremely old and some of them sport plaques giving their botanical names and so on - the titles of these plaques is something to the effect of 'outstanding tree' - and we found many of these dotted around the gardens.

The lake at the estate has it's quota of ducks - they were all paddling about in blissful ignorance of the fact that the duck shooting season had opened in New Zealand - just a day before we were there! although we would assume that these guys are pretty safe from big and little boys skulking around armed with 'duck whistles', retriever dogs and guns! The gardens have meandering paths which twist and turn and on rounding one corner, we came across this clipped piece of garden art. It's clearly not a maze but perhaps it's a remnant of days gone by when this estate was in it's heyday.

Evidently, there are two full time gardeners who work here at Woodlands Estate and there is one 'paid part- timer' and a whole team of volunteers who spend hours in the gardens creating the serene and well maintained acres - there are literally hundreds of high maintenance sections - plenty of roses and huge areas of trimmed lawns surrounded by manicured hedges - some of which are at least three metres high. The flowers on the right above, are surely some sort of lily reminicsent of the inca or tiger lilies which I know - they are a bit past their prime, but still pretty spectacular.

Hopefully, if you click on the picture above left, you can read about the history of the estate.

We took this picture below left for all of us who have Scottish connections - don't these little guys look amazing all kitted out in their kilts, sporrans and velvet jackets! Below right is the main house, which was being prepared to host a Bridal Show - there were ladies buzzing about inside setting up videos, tables of tempting delights to consider when planning a wedding and of course masses of amazing floral arrangements in every room. We were particularly struck by how large and spacious the 'entertaining areas' of the house are in direct contrast to the upstairs which houses two bedrooms and a nursery - pokey and cramped in spite of being so attractively decorated.

In the drawing room, there is a little old organ - the pump variety and when I was offered the chance of giving it a whirl, didn't have to be invited twice. For the size of the instrument, it produces a surprisingly rich and big sound!

There is a cricket oval in the grounds of the estate and the victorian clubhouse sports a cafe/restaurant which we visited for a bite to eat and something warm to drink. The restaurant has a baby grand piano as part of the interesting decor and it was of course not enough to just check out the make of the piano - the owner of the restaurant chatted away to us about pianos in general and this one in particular until we both had a go on it. The artwork displayed on the piano is certainly varied - who would have imagined that you could place three noses beside a hinged horse and a little gollywog boy?

The restaurant is not the sort of place that one would visit on a regular basis - very avante garde and expensive, but has a lovely atmosphere, a talkative friendly owner and good cuisine!

Dis al!