This years club road trip was to Rotorua visiting some of the Rotorua Bonsai Club members’ gardens. Thanks to Jocelyn, the Rotorua Club President, provided a clear itinerary of locations to visit throughout the day. A handful of Rotorua members also joined us, and give us directions!

Starting with Ivan, we were greeted with a wonderful display of colourful maples. A few of the Hamilton members remarked about the colour difference between the two cities, and how Hamilton hadn’t shown much Autumn colour yet.

The next stop was at Neil’s place atop one of Rotorua’s surrounding hills, the views were excellent. Neil’s collection had a great variety of large and small trees, new projects and well established trees.

The group then had lunch down at the lake front, there was plenty to watch as we ate. All forms of tourism activities were in action, from jet boats rides, Helicopter tours, a float plane, and a paddle boat!

Our last garden to visit was Peter’s, displaying a great range of colour from his large Maples and Swamp Cypress.

It was then time for a bit of retail therapy at Tikitere and Rhodohill nurseries.
The whole group thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and we would like to thank Jocelyn for her organisation to view the collections.