“Our purpose is to recognise, appreciate, preserve and share Remuera's past and present.”
2016 Visit to Auckland Government House Gardens
01-Mar-2016
The first event for 2016 will be a visit to the gardens of Government House in Epsom, Auckland on Tuesday March 1st 2016 at 10am, with a guided tour by one of the gardeners. Please rsvp to events@remueraheritage.org.nz.
Public entrance to the gardens is at the end of Savannah St, just past Eden gardens. Please do not park where there are Eden Gardens parking signs - anywhere else is fine.
The Government House website says this about the gardens; The site of the present day Government House, Auckland was first built upon in the 1880s or 1890s, although some of the trees are slightly older, dating from the 1870s. The House is much smaller than the Wellington House, being designed as a family home. The Queen stays at the House whenever she visits Auckland.
Sir Frank and Lady Mappin bought the property in 1921 and spent the next 45 years, after building the residence, developing and landscaping the grounds. They gave the House and land to The Queen in 1962 for use as a Royal or Vice-Regal residence. Only a few such large, long-established gardens have survived anywhere in New Zealand. The grounds have been endorsed as a "Garden of National Significance" by the New Zealand Gardens Trust. They feature many individual trees that are among the oldest of their kind in the country and because it retains some of the lava outcrops that were once a feature of the area, still covered in places by vegetation that also was once typical. Both the garden's design and its horticultural variety have particular merit.
These windows came from England as a gift from Alfred Bell, glassmaker to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, who owed his illustrious career to Albin Martin, who had given him drawing and painting lessons as a boy in England and set him on his path. In order to ensure that the church building and windows are properly preserved the parish vestry has employed heritage architects to oversee the work that needs to be done. .jpg)
Remuera Heritage held nine events in 2017 – a hard act to follow!