Walking on Ayrlies

Wed, Dec 28--my last day solo, as Frank is on his way and will arrive here at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow--hurrah! It will be wonderful to see him and really start our grand adventure together.

Yesterday in the village of Devonport I found a wonderful secondhand book called Private Views: Conversations with New Zealand Gardeners. Although published in 1996, many of the gardens are still open to the public, so I started my day with a few phone calls to see what might make a good day trip for my final day on my own. My first call seemed doomed to disappointment, as when I called Quarter Acre Paradise (highly recommended in New Zealand Gardens Open to Visit), one of the owners exclaimed "Oh no, we're closed because we are renovating the garden--it's the only time in ten years we've closed!" Great, just my luck! However, he took pity on me and passed the phone to his partner, Dale Harvey, who is THE NZ gardening guru. I had a wonderfully long chat with Dale, who is both charming and very knowledgeable, and he passed along a whole handful of recommendations of great gardens to see throughout NZ, and told me to stay in touch throughout our stay. He insisted, however, that if I saw one garden in the Auckland area, it had to be Bev McConnell's Ayrlies (viewable only by appointment), and gave me the number to call.

At first I thought my bad luck was still on, as no-one answered at the main number. The answering machine message did give the gardeners' cottage number, however, so I tried there...again no answer, but in faint hope I left a message, giving this number, and asking them to call back to see if I could arrange a visit. Within an hour, Rowan called me and said that, while the garden wasn't officially open today, I could come and wander around if I liked. Perfect! Off I went in Sue's car, which is also on loan to us (thank you Sue!), across the Harbour Bridge, through Auckland on the motorway, and veered off east towards the seaside village of Beachlands. Turning off along the way, as instructed, I went down smaller and less travelled roads and finally reached my destination, tucked away amid a band of trees, with only a big 'closed' sign in sight--not very auspicious..

However, passing through the lych gate, I found Rowan mowing the grass, and he gave me a map of the garden. The first view, down the sparkling cascade to a big lily pond, was beautiful enough for a whole garden, but over the next three hours I discovered dozens of such gorgeous areas, ranging from a rockery hugging a swimming pool, to a rose garden on a bank, a ring of tall sky-blue salvia in the middle of a meadow, three more ponds, various summerhouses, a Scottish 'sitooterie' (a place to sit oot in) complete with two metal goat sculptures, with a view to the ocean and a volcanic island...I couldn't possibly describe the beauty and atmosphere of this masterpiece of a garden. Early photos (1964) show it as an ordinary ranch style house amid a surround of bare green fields. No-one could imagine that now as they discover garden after garden linked in the fourteen acres around the house, surrounded by towering trees and woodlands. What impressed me the most, as I know just how hard this is to achieve, was how each area of the garden was filled with colour echoes--a peach groundcover would be backed by peach lilies, a coral rose, and then some peach cannas further back--no matter which direction it was viewed from. The Edwardian colour theorist Gertrude Jekyll would have glowed with pride to see her theories put so brilliantly into practice.

Again I was all alone in the garden, and could enjoy it to the full. Three hours and 150 pictures later, I had a great long chat with Rowan again before leaving, and obtained Mrs. McConnell's email address in the hope of arranging a placement here for our Hort students. Rowan also signed my Private Views book, as Mrs. M is away on holidays with the family--nice touch!

A quirky little Italian fruit market by the roadside in the middle of nowhere on the way back provided a raspberry gelato for a late lunch--a perfect ending to the day.