Film-maker Grant Sheehan, cinematographer Pepe de Hoyas and producer Shelley-Maree Cassidy.
From rubbish dump to world-class attraction, Hamilton Gardens has taken centre stage in a new documentary screening in New Zealand cinemas.
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Hamilton Gardens, produced by Phantom House Films for the Hamilton Gardens Development Trust, opened in cinemas last month and tells the story behind the tourist destination.
The documentary traces how a neglected stretch of land beside the Waikato River transformed into an internationally recognised collection of themed gardens spanning 4000 years of history.
Audiences are taken through Ancient Egypt, Song Dynasty China, Renaissance Italy and surreal future landscapes as the film explores the cultures, philosophies and ideas behind each garden.
At the centre of the story is the garden’s designer Peter Sergel, who first drew up plans for the site in 1978 despite having no development budget.
Over the next four decades, Sergel helped transform the former dump into what he describes as a “museum of humanity”, backed by volunteers, fundraising groups, trusts, sponsors and Hamilton City Council.
Film-maker Grant Sheehan said the gardens stunned him on his first visit in 2014, while photographing landscapes for a New Zealand book project.
“I couldn’t believe the incredible variety of gardens, and how authentic they were,” he said.
“Especially when you got above it on a drone, it was like you were flying over the real thing.”
That visit sparked years of conversations about documenting the gardens. Sheehan and his team first produced a book before deciding the story demanded a feature film.
“We fell in love with the place,” Sheehan said.
The film combines drone footage, interviews and historical storytelling.
“We wanted to take people on a journey through the gardens,” Sheehan said.
“We wanted them to pick up all the vestiges of narrative that jump out from everywhere.”
Drone footage became central to the film’s visual style, helping audiences understand how the gardens connect and flow together.
Sheehan said aerial filming also gave the documentary a dreamlike quality that reflected Sergel’s original vision for the site.
But Sheehan acknowledged drones now carry very different associations globally because of modern warfare.
He said that despite this, aerial cameras had become an essential filmmaking tool, allowing film-makers to capture perspectives impossible to achieve from the ground.
Sheehan said the production team worked carefully to avoid turning the documentary into a lecture.
“We had to feed things through very delicately, so as not to overwhelm people, and still leave something there for people to discover when they go there themselves.”
The documentary also highlights the people behind the attraction, from gardeners and sculptors to volunteers and long-serving staff who helped shape the site over decades.
One of them is current director Lucy Ryan, who took over the role in 2021 and has overseen significant changes, including the new entry precinct and paid entry system.
The film arrives as Hamilton Gardens continues to expand, with the Medieval Garden due to open later this year and fundraising underway for the Baroque Garden.
The attraction has gained increasing international recognition over the past decade.
In 2014, Hamilton Gardens won International Garden of the Year, while Tripadvisor later ranked it among the world’s top 1% of attractions.
After filming famous gardens around the world, Sheehan believes Hamilton’s creation stands apart.
“It’s such a clever concept, and so brilliantly carried out,” he said.
“I think it’s more extraordinary than anything we’ve seen, really.”
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.