As I approach Whakapuni Station, twenty minutes’ drive out of Martinborough, I look up at the 100-year-old Californian Redwood trees standing proudly at the entranceway to the homestead. The impression I get as I enter the driveway is of a classic, long-established Wairarapa sheep and beef farm. This property was in the McLeod family for five generations until Andy and Bridget Mathewson bought it in 2008. There were gardens around the homestead that had been lovingly looked after by the McLeods in the past, but a lot of it was outdated and Bridget and Andy decided to redevelop it. Bridget doesn’t claim to be a gardener. In fact, her training is in fashion design, but she has adapted these skills into designing spaces and in particular, garden spaces.
After many years of hard physical labour by Bridget, with the help of the occasional digger and concrete truck, the new garden is now well established. In 2023 Bridget was approached by Victoria Read, Trust Manager for the New Zealand Gardens Trust, to see if she would like Whakapuni Gardens to be listed with the Trust. At that time, Longbush Cottage was the only one listed in the Wairarapa and Victoria was keen to have more in the region.
The New Zealand Gardens Trust is an organisation that was set up in 2004 to promote the best in New Zealand gardens and horticulture. It has a system to assess all its registered gardens so that people have information on what to expect when they visit.
Bridget agreed to join, was assessed in November last year and awarded three stars, meaning it is now a “Notable Garden of New Zealand.”
Whakapuni Garden is open for visits over the summer months and can include morning tea or lunch. There have been many visitors since the garden was listed. One regular visit occurs on a Friday morning when a group of cyclists on the Remutaka, Palliser, Tora Tour run by Green Jersey arrive for a visit and morning tea. Victoria Read sees the potential for there to be seven or eight gardens in the Wairarapa that accept visitors regularly like Whakapuni. At the moment there are four. There is only one registered garden in Hawkes Bay, but if there were more it would attract garden enthusiasts to make an itinerary of gardens to visit travelling through the Wairarapa and on to Hawkes Bay.
Bridget is proud of what she has created so far. She enthused with me about her vision for the future. “That Copper Beech tree need to come out because it’s not thriving. I need to develop that area above the pond to hide the farm track. When materials are needed, I look around the farm to see what can be recycled for use in the garden. It’s amazing what I can find.” To my eyes, the garden is impressive now but it will be even more so in the years to come. More on the website: whakapunigardens.co.nz
