A large garden in the rolling country of east Auckland at 125 Potts Road, Whitford, with sweeping lawns and detailed plantings by ponds and waterways. The website says it was created in the millennium year, and its thirty-five acre wetland includes an eight acre lake that links the garden to the sea. The lake has become home to many native and visiting birds and wildlife. The website quotes writers and garden experts who have praised it, among them a curator at the Auckland Botanic Gardens, who called it an experience beyond any other in the country, and a British broadcaster, who wrote of a wide mixture of plants handled with great skill. There is an annual Plant Fair, and the book Ayrlies, by Beverley McConnell, tells the story of the garden she built over five decades. Our pick in east Auckland for a slow walk among water and plants.