Gardens victim of own success
Sunshine, tulips, and a selection of events at Hamilton Gardens proved more of a people-magnet than expected.
Traffic control was brought in on Saturday, to manage the bumper-to-bumper cars on Cobham Drive.
Before congestion eased, they were backed up for more than a kilometre in either direction.
‘‘We are, I guess, victims of our own success,’’ Hamilton Gardens director Dr Peter Sergel said.
The Gardens are being used ‘‘a bit beyond design capacity’’, he said.
A long-term plan for the Gardens will address some of those issues, he said, but won’t be public for another couple of months. Publicity for the annual Hamilton Tulip Festival, which focused on all things Dutch, brought many people to see the Gardens’ tulips, he said.
But Garden staffers didn’t know about three other events, he said: a Girl Guide market, a 1080 demonstration and an event at the cafe.
If they had known, the traffic management plan could have been brought in earlier, he said.
Extra pressure came on because grassed areas hadn’t been marked out for overflow parking, Hamilton Gardens business development manager Tamsin Webb said.
That will be done before this weekend.
Last Saturday, there were more than 5000 people in the enclosed gardens, she said, and numbers were just shy of 4000 on Sunday.
The traffic management plan was put into action somewhere between 11am and noon, so it took a while for the backlog to clear, she said.
The two-stage plan allows the Gardens to close gate one, off the roundabout, then – if required – gate two, closer to the Cobham Drive bridge.
‘‘We’ve never got to that point [of closing both] yet, but I think Saturday would have been our closest,’’ Webb said.
Locals should head to gate 2 first, if driving, she said, and to aim for hours outside the 11am to 3pm peak. Otherwise, visitors could consider carpooling, biking, or parking in Hamilton East and using the Sillary Street underpass.
Hamilton Gardens attracts about one million visitors a year, is the city’s most popular tourist attraction, and will continue to grow.
Three new gardens are due to open over the next couple of years: the Mansfield Garden in November 2018, the Picturesque Garden in late 2019, and the Surrealist Garden in 2020.
And city council’s current development plan allows for another four new gardens in the next five years, Sergel said.
However, much of that depends on the success of fundraising.
Mayor Andrew King had proposed charging non-residents a fee for entry to the themed gardens, but the idea didn’t make it through council’s long-term plan process.
Instead councillors wanted to hear the Hamilton Gardens Development Trust’s plan to fasttrack development of 17 more themed gardens.
The trust said it would raise $15 million to help pay for the Gardens to be finished over a decade, and was asked to consider an entry charge for international visitors.
Council agreed to contribute $10m over ten years, gathered through a targeted rate and onsite donations.
To let Hamilton Gardens know about your planned events, ring bookings on 07 958 5940, email hamilton.gardens@hcc.govt.nz, or contact them through the Facebook page.