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Aston Norwood Gardens

Gardens in the Wellington Region
Top pond in Aston Norwood Gardens in morning light with flowering cherry trees
Top pond in Aston Norwood Gardens in morning light with flowering cherry trees

Aston Norwood Gardens is a private garden and function centre/wedding venue north of Upper Hutt, New Zealand. It is accessible to the public for a fee and is most known for its cherry blossom trees.The gardens encompass 14 acres (5.7 ha) of rolling terrain along Remutaka Stream and were created in the late 1990s, formerly known as the "Kaitoke Country Gardens". The area was transformed from bare paddocks with only a few trees to a mature garden with around 400 cherry blossom trees, rhododendrons, and other flowering plants, a garden maze and two ponds connected by a small waterfall. The loosely Japanese-inspired garden holds its annual "Blossom Valley festival" every spring when the cherry blossom trees are in flower, typically from mid September to early October. At that time of the year, the garden is also open in the evenings and lit up after dark, in particular the cherry blossom trees. Most of the cherry blossom trees are of the variety Prunus × yedoensis 'Awanui', a variant close to the iconic pink yoshino cherry tree, chosen because it was available in New Zealand.Aston Norwood Gardens operates a function centre and wedding venue and also has a garden centre attached to it.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Aston Norwood Gardens (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Aston Norwood Gardens
State Highway 2,

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Wikipedia: Aston Norwood GardensContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -41.081388888889 ° E 175.20666666667 °
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Address

Aston Norwood Cafe and Function Centre

State Highway 2 1747
5018
Wellington, New Zealand
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Phone number

call+6445266639

Website
astonnorwood.co.nz

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Top pond in Aston Norwood Gardens in morning light with flowering cherry trees
Top pond in Aston Norwood Gardens in morning light with flowering cherry trees
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Nearby Places

Kaitoke
Kaitoke

Kaitoke (sometimes called Pakuratahi), part of Upper Hutt City, is a locality in the southern North Island of New Zealand. It is located at the northern end of the Hutt Valley, 45 kilometres northeast of Wellington City and six kilometres from the northern end of the Upper Hutt urban area. It also lies at the southern end of the Tararua Ranges. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "eat worms" for Kaitoke.The "Puffer" tramping track providing access into the Tararua Forest Park climbs from Kaitoke onto and along the Marchant Ridge. This ridge is the part of the Tararuas that is prominently visible from Wellington. The Marchant Track has a side track leading to the Tauherenikau Valley. The end of the Marchant Ridge (after four hours of 'up hill, all the way, both ways') leads to Mount Alpha, and onto The Southern Crossing. The entire track to Alpha skirts the Hutt Water Collection Area. The first Youth Hostel in the North Island was established in the old Ministry of Works barracks at Kaitoke, which were behind the Post Office and alongside the Kaitoke Hall. The Post Office, the Hall, and the Youth Hostel were the only buildings of the settlement. Other facilities include a small airstrip operated by the Upper Valley Gliding Club for the purposes of gliding the area's thermals.The Pakuratahi River flows through the eastern Kaitoke Basin from its source in the Remutaka Ranges. The old route of the Wairarapa Line railway, which closed with the opening of the Rimutaka Tunnel in November 1955, ran from Upper Hutt via Maymorn to Kaitoke and around Goat Rock up the Pakuratahi to the Summit, and from there, because of excessive steepness, the Fell mountain railway system was used to aid trains on the Rimutaka Incline between Summit and Cross Creek. This railway is now the Remutaka Rail Trail. The Hutt River has its source to the north of Kaitoke, and much of the land in the vicinity is used as a water supply reserve. Filming, rafting, swimming and other human activity all take place downstream of the water intake. The nearby Kaitoke Regional Park was the filming location for exterior shots of Rivendell for the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Wellington Heritage Multiple Unit Preservation Trust

The Wellington Heritage Multiple Unit Preservation Trust (WHMUPT) was formed to preserved D 2130, DM 556 and D 2411 or otherwise known as the "Cyclops" EMU set. The trust is based at Maymorn near the Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust (RIRHT). The set was purchased in January 2013 and arrived at their base on 21 April the same year. One trailer from this unit has been used as a passenger carriage by the RIRHT for their operational running days, and is stored undercover. Minimal conservation work has been done to the rest of the set which is stored outside. In June 2018, the group purchased a Ganz-Mavag EMU from Greater Wellington Regional Council for the symbolic price of $1. The unit had been sold to an overseas buyer previously, but the deal had fallen through and was in the process of being disposed of by burial when the deal was reached to preserve the unit. The unit has been stored in Wellington Railway yard awaiting a move to Maymorn to join Cyclops, with some graffiti removal work undertaken on the unit. In February 2022, the Ganz Mavag unit was moved from Wellington yard where it was stored to Hutt Workshops for further storage. The Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand (RHT) described the unit as having been abandoned by the WHMUPT, and that they were assuming the role of finding it a home. The RHT said the unit would be moving to Maymorn still, but its new caretakers would be the Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust (RIRHT) instead and that the move to Hutt Workshops was for a limited time while RHT funded the move to Maymorn. The RHT indicated that the WHMUPT was essentially defunct. It is not known at present whether the RIRHT are also to become the new owners of the Cyclops unit as well.