The enduring garden at The Elms | Te Papa Tauranga

— Excerpt from The Spirit of a Place: A New History of The Elms Te Papa Tauranga by Sarah Ell, photography by Amanda Aitken

The fertile land at Te Papa Tauranga has been cultivated for centuries. Like much of the Bay of Plenty, the peninsula is blessed with volcanic soils, enriched with ash from successive eruptions. The whole region is also blessed with high sunshine hours and mild temperatures, and is sheltered by the Kaimai Ranges from cool southwesterly winds. This favourable climate, combined with abundant natural resources in the seas and forests, made Tauranga Moana one of the most densely settled areas of New Zealand in the centuries prior to the arrival of Europeans.

Radiocarbon dating of shell deposits indicate the Te Papa peninsula was occupied by iwi Māori from the fifteenth century (1400–1500CE), making it one of the earliest settlements identified in Tauranga Moana. Before the arrival of the first Polynesian settlers it was probably covered in coastal forest: pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), pūriri (Vitex lucens), karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus), tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa) and mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium), as well as coastal flax wharariki (Phormium cookianum) and low-growing mingimingi (Coprosma propinqua var. propinqua).

Elevated, defensible coastal sites such as the tip of the Te Papa peninsula would soon have been cleared of vegetation by the first human arrivals and pā, kāinga and mahinga kai established. By the early 1800s, the trees were all gone, the land outside the Māori settlements covered in scrub or fern. Timber for building whare or waka had to be brought from inland, where forest still cloaked the lower slopes of the Kaimai Ranges.

Quaint wooden garden cottage with pitched roof set among trees and stone landscaping.

The pavilion at the centre of the Heritage Garden, designed by Matthews & Matthews Architects Ltd, which draws on Māori architectural styles and early raupō (bulrush) houses built on the site, as well as Edwardian-era pergola structures in the garden at The Elms.

Close-up of delicate pink flowers in bloom against the backdrop of a heritage garden. — Pink Japanese anemone

Serene garden pathway surrounded by tall trees and lush greenery in a historic estate.

Classic historic home exterior with tall shutters, potted geraniums, and vibrant pink hollyhocks — Hollyhocks have long been a signature flower at The Elms Te Papa Tauranga. The bright-flowering plants have self-seeded around the site since their first plantings in the mid-twentieth century, when the flower stalks used to grow up to 5 metres tall, as high as the belfry.

Classic colonial-style house with pitched roof, white siding, and manicured garden.

The rebuilt bakehouse and domestic services block, today used as offices and display space. In the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, these buildings were used as accommodation for domestic servants and, later, friends and family members of the Maxwells.

A structure surrounded by autumn trees and lush plantings.

The heritage garden

In 2016, The Elms Trust resolved to create a heritage garden, which would reflect the history of Māori and Pākehā occupation and use of the Te Papa Tauranga site. It would act as both an attraction and an educational resource, teaching visitors about the history of the site and the plants that have been grown here over the past 600 years. It also celebrates the garden’s role in tourism, reflecting the property’s position as a visitor attraction for more than a century.

The Heritage Garden was formally opened in February 2020.

Charming red-brick cottage nestled in a heritage garden with surrounding trees.

The grounds of The Elms Te Papa Tauranga house a collection of other buildings besides the mission house and the domestic services block, creating the sense of a small settlement. The coach house, which may date back as far as the 1860s, sits to the west of the main house.

Alfred Brown’s library. Brown built the chimney on the west wall himself in 1844, after finding his books were suffering from damp.

Pathway lined with golden autumn leaves in a historic estate garden.

A gravel path leading toward a historic villa with sunlight filtering through the trees.

The belfry, restored by Alice Maxwell in the late 1920s, still houses a recast version of one of the first bells brought to Aotearoa.

The Spirit of a Place: A New History of The Elms Te Papa Tauranga by Sarah Ell

Published by The Elms Foundation in association with Sherlock & Co. Publishing, RRP $60.00.

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