Parnell Rose Gardens

About

Dove-Myer Robinson Park, known to everyone as the Parnell Rose Gardens, holds around five thousand rose bushes on a slope above Judges Bay with the harbour behind them. The main beds run through summer and into autumn. The Nancy Steen garden alongside is the one for heritage roses and is at its best in October and again in April, and it is quieter than the main display. Two trees here are worth finding, the oldest mānuka and the largest pōhutukawa in Auckland. There is also a white garden, a rose maze and a fountain, plus the Fred Ambler lookout over the Waitematā. Free, with toilets, a car park, picnic tables, drinking fountains and an electric barbecue. The Parnell Rose Festival runs each November. A cafe operates on site.