Pukeiti 

Near New Plymouth there is a very

large garden, 360 hectares of it, on the side

of snowy Mount Taranaki. Called Pukeiti it was

established in 1951.

Planted in amongst the rain forest 

is a very important plant collection,

notably rhododendrons. There is a

nip in the slightly alpine air at Pukeiti that they

particularly like.

The weekend before last I took this colour

photo of a rata that survived

the early milling that ravaged this area

I'm not sure whether I want to keep it,

but ten years ago I took the photo below, of another

Rata also at Pukeiti. I did print it

up into an edition.