Eastwoodhill Arboretum

Douglas Cook took up a farm block inland from Gisborne in 1910 and, after serving in the First World War, spent the rest of his life - until 1967 - planting northern hemisphere trees on it, apparently in response to a fear that European flora would be destroyed by war. He imported obsessively and planted at scale. The result is 131 hectares holding around four thousand species, the largest collection of northern hemisphere trees in the southern hemisphere, and it was designated the National Arboretum of New Zealand in 2005. In practice that means Gisborne, which is not a place associated with cold-climate landscapes, has the best autumn colour in the country: oaks, maples, liquidambar and beech turning through April and May. Spring brings magnolias, cherries and rhododendrons. There are about twenty-five kilometres of tracks, a homestead, and accommodation on site. Outside those two windows it is green and quiet.

History

William Douglas Cook (1884-1967), from New Plymouth, founded the property in 1910 as a farm of 250 hectares, naming it after his mother's family home near Glasgow, and began a garden at once. Back at Eastwoodhill in 1918 he planted thousands of trees, ordering 1,996 trees and shrubs in 1919 and 3,387 in 1920; when his health failed in the 1960s he sold it to Bill Williams, who in 1975 gave the arboretum to a charitable trust (Wikipedia, Eastwoodhill Arboretum).

What's there

• The autumn colour - oaks, maples and liquidambar through April and May.
• The scale - around four thousand species over 131 hectares.
• The spring flowering - magnolias, cherries and rhododendrons.
• The track network - about twenty-five kilometres of paths.

When to go

April to May for autumn colour, which is the main event; September to November for spring flowering. Between those the collection is green and much less striking.

Things to know

Ticketed. It is a long drive on winding road from Gisborne. Twenty-five kilometres of tracks means choosing a route rather than seeing it all. Summer is hot with limited shade in the open sections.

Nearby

Gisborne and its beaches are east; Rere Falls and the rockslide are on the same road.

Key facts