Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden was established in 2010 by Annabel Menzies-Joyce and Peter Joyce as a native regeneration project and an evolving sculpture garden that is also home to rare or threatened native plants of Canterbury.

Many of the garden’s artworks pay homage to the environment and biodiversity, including Bing Dawe’s Towards Repair – Gorse as a Nursery – Composition with gorse, NZ beech and tuna from Hinewai (2022), seen here in the maquette (a small-scale version of the eventual work).

Bing Dawe’s work is strongly driven by a deep concern for the environment including the impact of urban development on native fauna, flora, and natural habitats. In this delicate sculpture in bronze and steel, he depicts a tawhairanui (red beech) growing through and above a base of gorse. Tuna (eels) weave through it, reflecting the wider ecosystem and the interdependence between the species.

On display

Bing Dawe, bronze maquette of Towards Repair – Gorse as a Nursery – Composition with gorse, NZ beech and tuna from Hinewai (2002)

On loan from Peter Joyce and Annabel Menzies-Joyce, Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden

Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden book

Donated by Peter Joyce and Annabel Menzies-Joyce

Professor Peter Joyce, former Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, found solace and joy in planting the Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden. He retired in 2016 and now has more time to work on the vision for the garden, to recreate a podocarp forest as it might have been 100 years ago. Since Autumn 2010, over 8,000 native trees and shrubs have been planted, reflecting the original native flora of the area. Plantings include kahikitea, tōtara, mataī, mānutu (ribbonwood), houhere (lacebark), kānuka, tātara (lemonwood), kōwhai, hebe, harakeke, and some coprosma species. The garden attracts growing populations of pīwakawaka, korimako (bellbird), riroriro (grey warbler) and swooping kererū.

Peter is also co-chair of Te Ara Kākāriki Greenway Canterbury Trust, which was set up in 2006 to create a corridor of native biodiversity ‘green dots’ between the Waimakariri and Rakaia Rivers, linking the mountains to Horomaka Banks Peninsula, Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere, and Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa The Pacific Ocean.

James Wright’s 2023 sculpture Let The Fun Begin with Peter Joyce and Alfie, 2023.

Photographed by Brian High for Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden

Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden co-founder, Annabel Menzies-Joyce, is a painter, sculptor, and qualified landscape architect. The landscape is her particular focus. Working in cast glass, she draws attention to its fragility and beauty through form, light, and colour.

In 2012 she was commissioned by David Bolam-Smith to create a kahikatea sculpture to commemorate the Japanese students who lost their lives in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. She made two: one for the Christ Church Cathedral, and one for the Japanese city of Toyama, the home to the greatest number of Japanese students killed. Peter and Annabel visited Japan for the unveiling of her work in 2012, visiting several parks and gardens there, which inspired them to include a Japanese influence in their sculpture garden.

Early collaborators supporting Annabel and Peter’s vision included sculptors Llew Summers and Doug Neil, artist Robyn Webster, and gallerist Jonathan Smart, among others. The Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden opened to family and friends in 2013 with a smaller exhibition and held the first of its Annual Autumn Exhibitions in 2014, when curator Melissa Reimer came on board.

Visitors to the garden enjoy a stunning range of curated small and large-scale sculptures for sale alongside a growing permanent collection of more than 30 works by 20 artists. National sculpture competitions are also held to commission new works for the collection.

The Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden Annual Autumn Exhibition runs over the first three weekends in March, and the garden is open by appointment throughout the year. Visitor numbers have grown from 400 in 2014 to 2,500 in 2022, cementing its place as an inspirational Waikirikiri Selwyn destination for art and garden lovers alike.