Hamilton: Swan in the Tron

When you visit Hamilton, you experience a little taste of China, Japan, India, Italy, England and America - all in one day.

How is this possible? Not by dining at six ethnic restaurants in one long gourmand excess, although I'm sure this has been done. No, by the simple path of visiting the Paradise Collection in the Hamilton Gardens.
Gardens and flowers have a remarkable way of drawing people together and making them smile. The Paradise Collection, a group of traditional ethnic gardens within the Hamilton Gardens complex at the south end of the city, has this quality in abundance.

I'm making my third visit and know I will enjoy the beauty and serenity of this special place despite the fact that I'm not an avid gardener. It seems to draw me into its embrace.

I head straight for the impressive circular courtyard that gives access to the ethnogarden section. The left-hand exit leads into a narrow lane formed by neatly trimmed hedges. I pass through a perfectly round doorway and enter a special place, feeling a little like Alice in Wonderland.

It's an arboretum enclosed with latticed windows and bamboo. Inside I come face-to-face with a round portal to a strange private world - a microcosm of the cosmos.

There are miniature mountains, cliffs, chasms and winding paths around a central rock-studded reflective pool.

Lily pads float serenely on the pool, their red blooms adding a splash of colour. Black and red dragonflies dart and hover over the water, their vibrating wings throwing off brilliant flashes of sunlight.

A mother duck shepherds her brood across the pond, gliding effortlessly while the ducklings paddle furiously to keep station in line. The dark orange shapes of goldfish track behind.

An untamed wilderness of wisteria is intertwined with the uprights of a quaint bridge that spans the pond. Birds twitter in the trees and I sense the lingering fragrance of jasmine. Looking upwards, I see the striking form of a red pagoda.

I spend some time observing the subtle contrasts of light and shade, the shadows and reflections, sounds and scents, yin and yang. It is a tapestry of all the elements of nature within a private pavilion.

For 10 centuries philosophers have sat in solace composing poems and wise sayings in Chinese Scholars' Gardens such as this one.

It has been designed as a natural world of the imagination, using the serenity of calming water, soothing sky, mythical characters and quaintly endearing man-made features.

It takes just a few steps to move from the Sung Dynasty through a gap in the shrubbery to a different world of antiquity.

The Japanese Garden of Contemplation is a haven of peace where you sit inside a pavilion and look out on rocky islands within a calm, reflective pool. Bonsai bushes and kinky-limbed trees rise from the islands and the shoreline to form a miniature forest.

Duck through another alleyway and you are confronted with a majestic white pavilion fronted by a very elaborate four-quartered garden. The formal Indian Char Bagh Garden is designed as a secret pleasure garden for Mughal Emperors as an escape from the harsh realities of life.

This colourful scene is a living Persian carpet of vibrant flowers and sensuous perfumes. Everywhere I walk, I hear the soothing sounds of trickling water in fountains and pools.

The flowering of modern European culture is represented next door in the elegant Italian Renaissance Garden. "Bellissima" is the word that comes to mind as I gaze on this treasure trove of flowers and shrubs. The original designers sought to improve on nature, an ambitious plan that has obviously worked. Stepping through another portal, I find myself in a 19th-century English flower garden. It is described as an arts-and-crafts garden planned as a setting for plant collections and for seasonal colour compositions.

The 20th century has something to offer in the American Modernist Garden, conceived for outdoor living in the best traditions of the American West Coast.

I take time out from my wanderings to sit on the cafe terrace under a cascade of flowering hibiscus and enjoy a leisurely lunch.

Below the terrace the lake shimmers, mirroring the tall trees beside the Russian bell tower high on the hill. Baby sparrows chirrup excitedly while quickly disposing of someone's lunch remnants on the cafe tables.

It's a scene of absolute tranquillity and peace just minutes away from New Zealand's fifth-largest city.

Once I've completed a circuit of the ethnogardens, I'm really in the moment and oblivious to the outside world. My mind goes into a poetic mode, recalling little gems like Joyce Kilmer's "I think I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree".

The next thing I know I want to hug trees, which does have a calming effect, but I resist the urge and explore the rest of the 58ha gardens.
This needs a generous time allowance, as there are many other specialised gardens to see.

The Cultivar Gardens feature rhododendrons and camellias and the superb Rose Garden, opened by expert grower Dr Sam McGredy in 2002. The New Zealand Rose of the Year Trials are held here each year, exhibiting the world's best blooms.

The Victorian Flower Garden and greenhouses display a wealth of colour and fine fragrances. The Landscape Gardens have woodland, valley and steep bank plantings of native trees and shrubs.

Then there are the Fantasy Gardens with their perfumed flowers; the Productive Gardens with crops for the kitchen; and the relatively new Tainui Maori Garden, with its traditional food storage house and kumara plantings. It's hard to conjure up a vision of the multi-hued work of art and nature that is the Hamilton Gardens. You just have to visit to see it in all its infinite variety. As Francis Bacon once wrote: "Gardening is the purest of human pleasures".

FACT FILE

Hamilton Gardens is located alongside Cobham Drive on State Highway 1 at the southern end of Hamilton city.

The gardens are the region's most popular visitor attraction, and have been designed to tell the story of the garden; representing the evolution of formal garden design from around the world.

There is an excellent information centre, which can arrange guided tours, and a garden cafe and garden terrace restaurant in a lakeside setting.

Mobility scooters and wheelchairs are available for hire from the information centre.

* For more information, see hamiltongardens.co.nz or email: hamilton.gardens@hcc.govt.nz.