The garden is 6 acres - with wide lawn paths linking each area together with rhododendrons, camellias, thousands of annuals, perennials and roses. We have a huge boardwalk linking all the ponds together which are surrounded by NZ natives.
We have a petanque court which we made for our daughter's wedding and play croquet on the lawn.
Sue is the gardener and nowadays as the garden has grown she has help. It is her passion and she spends every waking hour in the garden. Ted is an extremely keen fisherman having fished in Taupo and Rotorua for Rainbow Trout B.O.P for Snapper West Coast for Brown Trout Raratonga for Tuna Tonga for Marlin Alaska for Halbit and Landlocked Salmon Hokitika Channel for Blue Tuna.
The garden is 6 acres. Allow a good 1-2 hours for your visit.
You are welcome to have your wedding in our special setting. The garden is 6 acres - with wide lawn paths linking each area together with rhododendrons, camellias, thousands of annuals, perennials roses and a huge area dedicated to NZ natives surrounding Ted's pond.
Rakaia Gardens is a working dairy farm with 1400 cows - milked on a seasonal basis with calf feeding from August to September. We are not set-up for visits to the Dairy farm unless it is a drive-by in a Bus with my husband talking very informatively about the Dairy Industry which he was on involved in forming Fonterra for many years.
Fishing in the Rakaia River is about 3 minutes away from us.
All types of fishing are available: fly fishing, spin fishing, surf casts and deep-sea fishing. Fishing heaven in New Zealand.
Ted is an extremely keen fisherman having fished in:
Our season for Salmon is from October until the end of April each year. Between June and September, we are permitted to fish for trout from the Rakaia Bridge down to the sea.
The Waimak and Waitaki Rivers are both excellent salmon fishing rivers and are about 1.5 hours travelling from us.
Our great love is golf - the Rakaia 9 hole golf course is five minutes, Terrace Downs is 45 minutes from our home and any excuse is good enough to play golf.
282 Awaroa School Road, Dorie, 11 RD Rakaia.
On the Main South Road - (State Highway 1) - sixty kilometers south of Christchurch you can't miss the "Big Fish" in Rakaia. From the "Big Fish" travel 3 kilometers south on the Main South Road (State Highway 1) heading towards Ashburton. Then turn left onto Pendarves Rakaia Road (the big green and white road sign says Pendarves/Seafield) and the little yellow AA sign says Dorie Travel down that part of Pendarves Rakaia Road 300metres only - turn hard left onto Mainwarring's Road and travel 8.5k's - turn hard left onto Awaroa School Road (gravel road) travel 500metres and turn left into our drive and we are the big house at the end of the drive.
Gardens to visit is a collection of New Zealand's most beautiful gardens that open to the public.