The 'Life-changing Design' tour promises to be an unmissable and unforgettable gardening experience. Michael will be leading the tour from start to finish, with help from some of the owners and designers of these breathtaking home gardens.Join with us as we envelope ourselves in fine gardens, teasing out what we love, and what we can learn from, their virtuosity.

Tour Dates: 18th - 25th November, 2026

DAY 1 - Wednesday 18th November

Kia ora - welcome to New Zealand! Upon arrival, please make your way to the brilliantly situated and charming Observatory Hotel in Christchurch.  Your room will be ready for check-in from 2pm. 

The tour will commence with our Welcome Dinner at Fiddlesticks Restaurant and Bar. We’ll meet in the hotel foyer for a walking departure to the restaurant.

Meal included: Fiddlesticks, Christchurch

Accommodation: Observatory Hotel, Christchurch

DAY 2 - Thursday 19th November

Our tour leads with an eye-popping start, visiting Flaxmere in the rolling hills of Canterbury. Penny Zino started gardening here in the 1960’s, and is still hard at it, forever dreaming up new ideas for this garden with a perfect balance between intimate, inward looking spaces and glimpses out to the spectacular surrounding landscape.

Then, after a wonderful home-made lunch in the garden, we’ll head to another garden nearby on a long creative journey - Loch Leven.

Gardens: Flaxmere & Loch Leven

Meals included: Lunch at Flaxmere

Accommodation: Observatory Hotel, Christchurch

DAY 3 - Friday 20th November

Today we head north on the spectacular coast road to Blenheim.

En route (having kept our eyes open for snow-topped mountains and beach-side seals) we’ll stop for lunch at Kekerengu's renowned 'The Store’.

Then we’ll coach up a nearby precipitous cliff to Winterhome, a garden of formal, interconnecting vistas that leaves you gasping at the vision and sense of scale of its creator. The ocean views are spectacular, but the garden views are even better!

Then on to Blenheim, and our home for the next three nights - Chateau Marlborough.

Gardens: Winterhome

Meals included: Lunch at The Store, Kekerengu

Accommodation: Chateau Marlborough, Blenheim

DAY 4 - Saturday 21st November

Our day starts with a visit to Moritaki, which takes NZ natives in an entirely new direction, absorbing them into a Japanese-inspired matrix.  It's one of the most successful ‘fusion’ gardens you’ll see!

And then to Welton House, the brainchild of Wendy and Ross Palmer, and, in a remarkable expression of their character and creativity, combines a love of interesting plants with unique and playful design ideas. 

We’ll then reflect on the day at one of Blenheim’s finest restaurants, specialising in locally sourced, and often foraged foods, Arbour.

Gardens: Moritaki & Welton House

Meals included: Dinner at Arbour, Blenheim

Accommodation: Chateau Marlborough, Blenheim

DAY 5 - Sunday 22nd November

Our first garden today is the unforgettable Paripuma, a breathtakingly vast landscape of emphatically European layout, but achieved using New Zealand native plants. The grand vista is an object lesson in scale and proportion, and the perfect spot for a glass of Marlborough’s finest. 

From Paripuma we head to the Awatere Valley and on to Barewood, one of the best English-style country gardens you’ll see anywhere! Generous, gracious lawns connected by magical avenues, as background to gorgeous colour themed plantings of roses, perennials and bulbs. Lunch on the lawn will precede a wander.

And finally a surprise visit to a brand new garden, that the owner (of extraordinary track record in garden creation), upon being asked if she’d open for us, replied ‘Oh, God, I reckon I’m up for it!’. 

Gardens: Paripuma, Barewood & Carolyn Ferraby’s brand new garden

Accommodation: Chateau Marlborough, Blenheim

DAY 6 - Monday 23rd November

Today we farewell Blenheim and head south along the coast to Amberley.

We’ll start with lunch - we’ll be ready for it by then! - before heading to the highly rated garden of Blue House, where Jenny Cooper has been experimenting with entirely new ways of gardening in open and honest response to her challenging conditions. Having started out - and failed - with traditional methods, Jenny knew she had to try something radical!

Gardens: Blue House

Accommodation: Observatory Hotel, Christchurch

DAY 7 - Tuesday 24th November

On the outskirts of Christchurch is Broadfields New Zealand Landscape Garden. Created by David Hobb with the goal of creating a truly New Zealand garden, the design results in many vistas and rooms, and reveals the power of good design to showcase an astonishing diversity of foliage colour, texture and form in the NZ flora.

We’ll then return to Christchurch for a wander around Christchurch Botanic Gardens - one of the most engaging botanic gardens we’ve seen - and we’ve seen lots!

Our penultimate day of the tour will conclude with dinner in Christchurch where we’ll take the time to reminisce about a week we’ll never forget.

Gardens: Broadfields & Christchurch Botanic Gardens

Meals included: Dinner at The Curators Cottage, Christchruch

Accommodation: Observatory Hotel, Christchurch

DAY 8 - Wednesday 25th November

We conclude the tour with a fitting finale at Frensham - a garden of extraordinary finesse.  Roses, peonies, and perennials, along with choice flowering shrubs and trees, are set in a framework that explores every spatial opportunity, from wide, gracious lawns, to narrow woodland paths, to long, climber-laden pergolas. 

Then we'll head back into Christchurch by late morning, and make our way to the airport, or to further travels!

Garden: Frensham