{"id":133548,"date":"2025-11-13T20:42:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/133548\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T20:42:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:42:18","slug":"the-sculpture-park-at-waitakaruru-arboretum-changes-hands-as-founders-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/133548\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sculpture Park at Waitakaruru Arboretum changes hands as founders retire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the start of their mission, the couple have planted more than 25,000 trees.<\/p>\n

Over the years, they also received more than 100 sculptures from numerous artists, which can be explored via a 2km loop walk that guides visitors past trees, plants, ponds, cliffs, the Waitakaruru stream and a little waterfall.<\/p>\n

After years of hard work, the Wakelings were ready to retire in 2018 and tried several avenues to pass on their legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe even tried to get local authorities to take it over, but they declined due to the costs,\u201d Dorothy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t see a reason why it should close, so we kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n

To raise additional revenue apart from the entry fee, they host sculpture exhibitions and creative workshops, they set up an outdoor riddle game, and since 2023, the park also has a cafe, called The Roosting Ruru, and a bed and breakfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a surprise to us that we are still not so well-known,\u201d Dorothy said.<\/p>\n

\" The 17.5 ha property features cliffs, ponds and numerous native, foreign and rare plants. Photo \/ Danielle Zollickhofer<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] I don\u2019t know any more how to reach different people to encourage them to come and have a look.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful place to enjoy others\u2019 company. You always have something to talk about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great place for conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sculpture park and arboretum were affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, with slips and a lot of trees coming down.<\/p>\n

It was devastating for the Wakelings, and they were almost ready to give up.<\/p>\n

\" The Portal Project, a piece of land art by artist Marcus Tatton at The Sculpture Park at Waitakaruru Arboretum. Photo \/ Danielle Zollickhofer<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was absolutely nothing like the East Cape [Hawke\u2019s Bay], but to us, it was horrendous. [On] one particular hillside, 30 years of tree-planting have been wiped out,\u201d John said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time something like this happens, you wonder if you can keep going,\u201d Dorothy said.<\/p>\n

But as \u201cgenerally optimistic people\u201d, the couple pushed ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hopeful sort of people that things will change and will improve … that things will work out at the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, and we\u2019re a bit nutty,\u201d Dorothy said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe old quarry overlooks the Waikato valley with lots of farms. Photo \/ Danielle Zollickhofer<\/p>\n

A new artwork, created by Marcus Tatton, a New Zealand artist living in Australia, turned some of the devastation into a \u201csignificant\u201d piece of land art.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat cheered us up immensely,\u201d John said.<\/p>\n

The Portal was created from parts of the trees that came down during the cyclone.<\/p>\n

Things have started to look up for the sculpture park and arboretum, which sees about 10,000 visitors a year.<\/p>\n

The bed and breakfast is also doing well, with Dorothy saying it had bookings well into next year.<\/p>\n

\" The Sculpture Park at Waitakaruru Arboretum also has a bed and breakfast. Photo \/ Danielle Zollickhofer<\/p>\n

And then, of course, the new owners, who first approached the Wakelings two years ago about taking over.<\/p>\n

This year, Antoinette Van der Weerden, who has a background in landscape architecture, was appointed park manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very pleased that there are a group of people who actually see the importance of this continuing,\u201d Dorothy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such a model of rehabilitation that\u2019s meant to inspire people to connect with environment and their own creativity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel we sometimes struggle to explain … how significant this is.<\/p>\n

\"SculptureSculpture Park visitors enjoying The Outfits by Rebecca Rose at the Waitakaruru Arboretum.<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] just occasionally, people get it. But that doesn\u2019t matter so much as the person who comes in and just has a nice wander and feels better for it … that\u2019s more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arboretum changed hands for an undisclosed sum, with Dorothy and John saying they received the value of the two properties, their home and the bed and breakfast, on the site.<\/p>\n

The Wakelings said they would stay at the property for a few more years and remain involved as volunteers and caretakers.<\/p>\n

Looking back on their 30-year involvement, John said while they knew exactly what they were doing, they didn\u2019t realise it was going to be quite so hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to think about the transformation,\u201d adds Dorothy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very pleased [the project] has come to a stage where others can appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danielle Zollickhofer is the Waikato news director and a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the start of their mission, the couple have planted more than 25,000 trees. Over the years, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[91528,91527,806,1975,4500,156,19363,10046,19720,69319,15399,111,139,69,1523,8143,3263,17718,46440,2194,223,19054,1524,91526],"class_list":{"0":"post-133548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-34year","9":"tag-arboretum","10":"tag-as","11":"tag-at","12":"tag-changes","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-founders","15":"tag-hands","16":"tag-land","17":"tag-leaf","18":"tag-massive","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-over","23":"tag-park","24":"tag-project","25":"tag-rehabilitation","26":"tag-retire","27":"tag-sculpture","28":"tag-the","29":"tag-turned","30":"tag-waikato","31":"tag-waitakaruru"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}