Peter Williams and Jack Hobbs Celebrate Gardens and Village Life

Our eight acres of timeless gardens are a great source of pride at Remuera Gardens, for residents and staff alike. So when we bring special events to the village, we love finding ways to connect them with the things that make Remuera Gardens such a unique place to live.

Last week, our gardens took centre stage as we welcomed renowned broadcaster Peter Williams and one of New Zealand’s best-known horticulturists, Jack Hobbs, for a very special morning of gardening, general knowledge, stories and plenty of laughs. Jack became a familiar face to New Zealanders through Maggie’s Garden Show and has dedicated almost 50 years to horticulture, including a long association with the Auckland Botanic Gardens

Despite their long careers in New Zealand broadcasting and horticulture, Peter and Jack had never met before the event. It didn’t take long to discover they made quite the pair.

With a fully booked Pavilion filled with Remuera Gardens residents and guests from the wider community, Peter and Jack took on the role of quizmasters for our Great Garden Quiz. General knowledge was mixed with some surprisingly tricky gardening questions

As special guests of Remuera Gardens, Peter and Jack spent time exploring our eight acres of established gardens and visiting The Avenue Apartments, the newest addition to our village and home to some of the most spacious retirement apartments in Remuera. Before taking to the stage, they even found time to sit down together for a cup of tea in one of the apartments.

Both Peter and Jack were impressed by the village, but for Jack, unsurprisingly, the gardens were a particular standout.

The gardens around this place are superb. Not only are the plants diverse, there’s a whole range of different plants and they’re labelled just like a little Botanic Gardens. I have never seen anything like this in a village like this one.

For a village that takes enormous pride in its gardens – including the extraordinary variety of plants that have been carefully catalogued and labelled over many years – it was wonderful to hear such generous words from someone who has spent a lifetime in horticulture.

The morning wasn’t only about gardens. Peter and Jack also shared stories from their remarkable careers and reflected on life after retirement. Peter retired from full-time broadcasting in 2021, but he certainly hasn’t struggled to fill his days.

It doesn’t take much to adjust to a life of retirement when you have things in life that you want to keep doing. In my case, I play a lot of golf – two or three days a week. I’m president of the Cromwell Golf Club, which takes a lot of my time, I write, I get invited onto online shows… I’ve got plenty to do. It’s the old story – I don’t know how I had time to work!

Jack, who retired only 15 months ago, had much the same story to tell: 

I’m loving life. There’s so much to do. I take lots of trips around the world – I’ve just come back from France, I’m off to India, and I’ve been to Norfolk Island. My life is very full. I’m still playing a bit of tennis, and my friends invite me to play golf every week, but I’ve only managed one game in 15 months! I even have a fishing boat and I’ve only taken it out once. There’s just so much going on. I love it – I have so many choices now.

Perhaps that was one of the loveliest messages to come out of the morning: retirement doesn’t have to mean slowing down. It can simply mean having more freedom to choose what comes next.

The Great Garden Quiz was a wonderfully entertaining morning, putting our gardening knowledge to the test while also taking us on a trip down memory lane with two people who have spent decades doing what they love. Most of all, it was a privilege for our residents, guests and team to spend the morning with two exceptionally talented, warm and down-to-earth New Zealand personalities. And we have to admit, hearing Jack Hobbs describe Remuera Gardens as “a little Botanic Gardens” made us rather proud too.

To find out more about life at Remuera Gardens, visit https://remueragardens.co.nz/