Eastwoodhill Arboretum

Brown Walk

The Brown Walk combines the coniferous plantings of Orchard Hill and the Pinetum with the deciduous plantings of Douglas Park and Glen Douglas before working its ay through The Circus back to the Visitor Centre.

What you'll see on the Brown Walk:

The Circus

The origin of this name of the arboretum goes back to before the mid 1920s. About 1927 the roads were metalled for the first time and winter access was available. Prior to this in the deep mud of winter, the only way to transport goods up to Rere and beyond to Wharekopae was with bullock teams. Douglas Cook let them camp in this area and his description of the noise, singing, grog, cooking, animals etc was to call the whole thing a CIRCUS. Earlier shelter belt pines were felled in 1949 and seedling regrowth followed so that in 1956 when Douglas Cook planted the Circus in imported plant material, the Circus Ridge was a dark background. At that time also the Kahurangi stream was dammed and four ponds were formed.

Homestead Garden

The Homestead Garden is 1.5ha and extends from the Visitor Centre to the Homestead and across to the Black Gates. Planting in the garden was piece meal at first, but in 1926, the garden expansion began with an area close to the house being reworked and "Thousands of Tulips, Hyacinths and Peonies were imported from Holland and broad herbaceous borders were made and planted, the slopes at the sides being planted in shrubs". The bulbs never survived the East Coast environment and today the garden is filled with large mass plantings of herbaceous material and annual displays.

Orchard Hill

At only 5ha Orchard Hill is a small but important part of the arboretum. The coolness and part shade of the site influenced Douglas Cook to plant cool loving species there e.g. Picea, Ilex, and Abies. Planting in Orchard Hill began in the late 1950s. The Homestead Garden overlooks the lower basin which was the original site of Cook's orchard and cherry plantings. Later plantings of Magnolia and other spring flowering trees herald the start of spring each year.

The Pinetum

The Pinetum was established on a fairly harsh site suitable for not much except pines in the early 1990s and now contains over 70 different species, subspecies and forms of Pinus. A steep walk to the top of Far Horizons gives some wonderful views north across the neighbouring farmland and to the back of the arboretum.

Douglas Park

In 1945 Douglas Cook and Bill Crooks set to and plant what was to become Douglas Park (10 ha). However a lengthy drought followed and the whole planting failed. Douglas took it as a judgement and did not go back to replant until 1949. At this point the material from England had begun to arrive in quantity. So today we have as a focal point of this valley a marvellous collection of oak species about the main tracks that make up Douglas Park.

Glen Douglas

Douglas Cook originally put aside land in what is now called Glen Douglas to give to Rob Bayly then curator of Pukeiti to start a nursery venture which due to lack of money, never eventuated. Most of Glen Douglas was planted in 1960-1961 and as with Douglas Park it has a strong theme of oaks alders and a Sorbus collection set amongst a series of ponds running down the valley.