Park has plenty of tales to tell
The seven gardeners at New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park look after the equivalent of seven rugby fields each.
And that’s not including the dedicated fernery, which has three gardeners of its own, or the apprentice currently learning the ropes.
But on a midsummer Monday morning, mother nature is giving them all a helping hand by bucketing down with rain.
‘‘We really need it,’’ Pukekura Park curator Kristian Davies says.
Davies, who ran his own landscaping business in London for 15 years, might have the most stunning walk to work in the country.
Surrounded by thousands of different species of plants and native trees, his office is located in the heart of the 144-year-old park.
Exactly how many different species, though, is a good question, says Davies, whose favourite parts of the park are Rhododendron Dell and Curiosity Walk.
‘‘Literally thousands. We try to run it like a botanic garden and get as many different species as possible,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s got a fantastic age, Pukekura Park, for a New Zealand garden. Some of the specimens are 120 or 130 years old.’’
It was the beauty of the park and the lifestyle Taranaki offers which drew him to the region.
Although the park, which opened on May 29, 1876, may be known for its manicured beauty and serenity now, the 52 hectare site has lives.
‘‘The stories within the park are phenomenal,’’ Davies says. lived many different
12 things you may not know about Pukekura Park
1. A flag pole once stood on top of Cannon Hill, named, aptly, after a cannon that used to be up there, and a flag was raised to warn the gentlemen away when ladies were bathing in the main lake.
2. Kiwis were successfully bred in an aviary near the Fountain Lake in the early 1900s.
3. The park once housed a vineyard which was part of a winery planned from 1875 to 1881 by German father and son Heinrich and Johann Briedecker in Stainton Dell. The business was abandoned, but plants from vineyard cuttings now grow near The Gables.
4. The Bowl of Brooklands, which has hosted some of the biggest music acts from around the world, was once just a paddock where Newton King grazed stock and racehorses until his death in
1927.
5. Poet’s Bridge, the red bridge over the main lake, was funded from a win at the races on a horse called ‘The Poet’.
6. The park has hosted Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh as well as Prince Charles and Camilla.
7. It was once a rifle range and local militia used to practise shooting across the valley on to the hillside east of where the main lake is now.
8. All the lakes and tunnels in the park were dug out by hand
9. The sports ground at Pukekura Park was used for shooting part of the 2003 blockbuster film The Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise.
10. Before being developed into the Garden of National Significance it is today, much of Pukekura Park was swamp land.
11. Despite the park seeing major foot traffic, with more than 50,000 people attending Womad, 125,000 attending TSB Festival of Lights, as well as concert-goers over summer at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands, it has minimal impact on the park’s plants.
12. Trenches were dug alongside the main pathways in case of air raids during World War II.