Centennial Gardens , Napier

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The Centennnial Gardens, Napier. Who would have thought that these beautiful gardens were once a quarry, manned by prison labourers?

 The gardens were established in 1974 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Napier being established as a city and borough.

Every crumb of soil had to be moved onto the site. The waterfall looks like a piece of natural history. It is however a man made creation with water in a lower pool being pumped to a higher pool to feed the falls (the rock face is 40 metres in height).

If you have the time the aquarium, Marineland and the Centennial Gardens can all be visited in the same day as they are all on the same stretch of road.

If you start out early in the day you can enjoy all 3 attractions fully and still have time to stroll around Napier later.

Lady Norwood Rose Garden and Begonia House

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Look I have to admit that normally I am not a "flower" person. But this place is lovely.

Roses of every conceivable colour and size are laid out in immaculate beds in the rose garden itself. Whilst the begonia house displays loads more beautiful blooms.

Viewed from the air using Google map's satellite view (above) the gardens look relatively small. However if you look at Google's map scale the complex must be about 7-8000 square metres in size. Besides with over 3000 different types of roses displayed it has to be big!

Wander amongst the flowers at your leisure or just sit amongst them and enjoy the colour, the fragrance and the New Zealand sunshine.

If a place like The Lady Norwood Rose Garden can impress somebody who isn't normally entertained by flowers it must be good.