The Garden Project
Increasingly, the Quarry Gardens are recognised as a recreational hub for Whangarei's network of walking and cycling paths, and as a natural entry point to the Coronation Reserve on Western Hills.
All the great gardens or landscapes of the world have signatures - things that create strong impressions and evoke lasting memories. Ours are:
Subtropical Theme
The overall planting theme of the Whangarei Quarry Gardens is subtropical. This includes not only plants that originate from land between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, or close thereby, but also those which have a subtropical appearance. In environmental terms we can divide our theme into two groups of plants - those that originate from and/or evoke an image of " moist tropical" (rain forest or jungle); and those that represent "dry tropical" ( desert or similar).
Other Features
Natural benefits of the site such as streams, steep areas and established trees are being enhanced while many important remnants of the early quarry history such as tunnels are being retained. Special areas of the gardens are devoted to intensive plantings to ensure a year-round attraction of world class. Feature gardens so far include:- the Bromeliad garden, subtropical (Louisiana) iris garden, scented Camellia collection and several succulent gardens.
Water Sources
The Garden's two waterfalls are fed by a catchment area of approximately 140 hectares. They both fall about 40 metres to the lake below before travelling down the Garden's stream through a twisted and rocky valley. During days of heavy rain, the Gardens take on a life of their own with a myriad of small streams and waterfalls springing up in the most unexpected places. This is largely due to the bedrock being heavily fractured by years of quarrying of the site.
Plants and Birds
Native trees as well as more recently planted species attract numerous bird life to the Gardens including wood pigeons, tuis, kingfishers and fantails plus quail, ducks and various parakeets. The Gardens are already home to a large variety of exotic, flowering plants as well as Bromiliads, palms, ferns, cycads and orchids.
Dam and Lake Project
All the great gardens of the world include water features in their landscape design. Water provides movement, colour, noise, all often in variable amounts; and humans are compulsively drawn to it. the vision of the Gardens always included a lake, more-or-less in the present location and this was realised in early 2003. The concrete spillway for the lake has been sculpted to replicate natural rock.
Visitor Centre and Cafe
An ambitious project over the new few years is the construction of a Visitor Centre complete with cafe, administration, shop and meeting rooms. The Centre will be located on the left side of the stream as you drive into the Quarry Gardens. The proposed site is currently a section of flattened earth as shown on the far right of the photo.
Garden of the Five Senses
This is a 500 square-metre garden divided into 5 portions each of which covers one of the classical five senses - scent, taste, touch, sight and hearing.
The Arid Garden
Work on this garden commenced November 2003 on the second bench overlooking the lake. This spot is elevated, north-facing, sunny, and backed by heat-reflecting rock faces providing the perfect haven for xerophytes or plants that prefer drought and heat. The Arid Garden is a landscaped selection of a few carefully-chosen cacti, succulents and other compatible species.
Northland's Climate
Our proximity to the islands of the Pacific give it a subtropical climate, which means an average mean temperature of 15 degrees. This mild climate means winter lows rarely reach below 0 degrees, and the summer months offer daytime highs of up to 30 degrees. Northland also offers an average of 1900 sunshine hours a year, and an average rainfall of 1300mm.
The Gardens themselves with their heat radiating stone walls and natural water sources have created the perfect micro-climate for a sub-tropical paradise. It is an almost frost-free environment with the body of water in the top lake always remaining above freezing and the flow of air down the 300 metres of valley keeping air moving on cold nights.
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