- Aotea / Great Barrier’s annual ticketed Garden Tours are taking place on Saturday 29 November 2025; a fundraiser for equipment for Great Barrier Island Community Health Trust
- Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board is helping to fund the tour transport and goodie bags through a local grant
A crowd favourite, the Spectacular By Nature Garden Tours on Aotea are back for 2025, and one tour sold out in under five minutes.
Drawing visitors to the island and also popular with locals, the annual Garden Tours are a fundraiser for the Great Barrier Island Community Health Trust. Most of the tours offer a chance to explore six unique gardens of island residents over the course of a day.
“We’ve had people returning year after year after year, one guy is coming back for his eleventh tour,” says administrator for GBI Community Health Trust Robyn Grice.
“They keep on returning because they’ve just had such a good time. It’s an amazing weekend.”
For the last few years, the tours have had a helping hand from Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board grant funding towards tour transport and goodie bags.
Proceeds from this year’s tours will go towards purchasing equipment for the new wing of the health centre.
While the gardens aren’t all different every year, Robyn says if you’ve taken a tour before there should still be something new to see.
“Sometimes people take a break, and sometimes there are new ones.”
And for first-timers, she describes it as a real local experience being in people’s backyards.
“You’re not going to get that on a regular holiday. You get a sense of localness. Be prepared for a really interesting day out. People love it! People are buzzing at the end of the day.”
This year’s event is taking place on Saturday 29 November. The tours start in the morning so anyone with a ticket living off-island will need to travel to Aotea the day beforehand.
So far, it has never been cancelled due to weather, so pack your gumboots and waterproof gear if you’re heading along.
Two of the four tour options are fully booked. Limited tickets are left for the remaining tours Totara and Rewa which can be booked through the Garden Tour website. There’s also the option to add on a paper lunch bag, and to attend the Friday Feast the evening before to meet fellow tour mates.
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