1000 visit Assisi gardens

Up to 1000 visitors at a time wandered the olive groves and green at the inaugural Assisi Garden Summer Fair on Saturday.
Owners Cec and Andy Buchanan, alongside a corps of parking attendants, van drivers and traffic controllers, hosted the charity event that comprised a live band and a harpist serenading visitors among the olive trees.
There were also 30 hand picked stallholders on site offering wares that included food, refreshments, garden and home ornaments and furniture from across New Zealand.
Noted artists and sculptors from the region also exhibited their work at the fair, which was held as a fundraiser for the Masterton-based CatWalk SCI (spinal cord injury) Charity Trust.
Assisi Garden is an 11h property located about 15 minutes east of Masterton that Mr Buchanan said took "a lifetime" to create and daily work to perfect.