This brought the visitor directly to the wharf at Annandale, through the box hedge entrance and to the front door of the hotel, "guarded" by two New Zealand native Cabbage trees.

The garden was developed by James Gibson, a student of Alfred Buxton, who was one of New Zealand's best known landscape gardeners of the time. James Gibson was obviously influenced by Buxton's style and created box hedging, sweeping lawns, dry stone walls and English trees underplanted with daffodils.

Rustic summer houses and an old fernery (originally the prototype for the fernery at Monavale in Christchurch) still remain, also a magnificent pergola covered in old roses, providing a leafy connection between the drawing room and the original "pleasure garden".