Riverstone Castle

02/04/2026

I just want to say happy Easter. Go easy on the chocolate. See you next week. We have been weeding all day the 4 gardeners and now it's time to have a cuppa. Cheers.

29/03/2026

28/03/2026

Wow!! It's Autumn already. We have had the most strange weather. Hot, cold, windy rain. It cannot make up it's mind. Not that I am complaining when I know what is happening everywhere else in the country with all the floods etc, and what is happening around the world. Who ever would have thought we would see all this war devastation happening in our life time. It makes me appreciate everyday in our own little country. You know sometimes I think we need to take a moment and just be grateful for what we have. Who cares if things are not perfect at home, we can live. Most Kiwis have space, for some veges in pots, or a fence around the section that would support beans, fruit trees and pots which can grow all manner of food to eat. But, I seldom see the potential being used and people complain they cannot feed themselves. It is all about education. Where are the TV programs to show people how easy it is to achieve some of these things. Instead we get terrible violent programs which disturb the mind.
At home now it is preserving time with the apples, pears, blackberries, peaches and nectarines all filling up the cool store waiting their turn for processing. It has been a prolific season all round. The pear trees have had so much fruit, same with the apples. So good for stewing and making pies. Yesterday I bottled peacharines which are like golden queen peaches. I don't peal off the skin and spent the day at the castle preserving. People on tours were fascinated to see someone still doing these old skills our mothers used to do to feed us all. On Friday we did blackboy peaches, also don't peel them and they are delicious, Any off cuts I made into jam which I think will be great on icecream. Bevan puts an email out for fruit and lots of people bring out their surplus to the restaurant. I have found a patch of wild blackberries a little way away from home and have spent two afternoons picking them. One of my old time favorite occupations. Out there all by myself with just the wind in the trees and the birds singing. Sometimes I need some space and quiet as my life is full of people and every moment at home is taken up with jobs.
This rain has not been kind to the dahlias and will need a lot of beheading. Some of the huge ones have flopped over their heads and look pretty awful. I have put a picture up of a pink dahlia which has grown ginormous. It is twice my height and we have planted it near a fence to tie it up to. I have never seen one grow so tall. The gardeners are very busy pulling out all the old flowers and re planting spring bulbs now. They multiply so much every year it gets harder to find space for them all. The strawberries are still giving us huge bowls full every week for the kitchen and also picking the autumn raspberries.
We have decorated the castle for Easter again this year. People are enjoying the change. Don't get tempted to pinch my Easter eggs though as I keep them from year to year and put them in the freezer for the next year. Some can be over 5 years old!!!
At the moment I have the huge challenge of clearing out our old house we have been living in for 43 years. The floors are rotten and only the carpets stops you from going through the floor in places. We have had many floods in the house over its life time, leaking shower behind the wall board, header tanks over flowing in the ceiling and running down the walls like waterfalls. someone I know turns the kitchen sink taps on to do the dishes then goes outside to feed the dog. When I come inside the water is coming out to meet me. Life is never boring. The house is getting a total revamp which will be exciting if I ever get the stuff out of it. The roof is coming off so there is no other way out. We are changing the pitch to raise the ceiling in the lounge, kitchen to match the conservatory This will make the little cottage look bigger and more open. Well, I had better stop rambling on and get back to the mess on the floor in the old house. Neil will come in for his lunch and wonder what the hell all the mess is about. Take care and get preserving to feed the family this winter. Love Dot. Raewyn will post up the pictures soon.

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19/02/2026

Hello everyone. Guess what? I am 78 today. I cannot believe I am nearly 80. Where has all those years gone. We did a snapchat photo this morning to take a few years off the total to make me feel more glamorous. Raewyn came to work and brought me a watermelon cake today for my birthday. It was delicious. No calories and all delicious fresh fruit. Roll on for another successful year. It has rained quite hard today in patches with sun in-between showers It certainly has an autumn feel to the days now. The hydrangeas are getting that autumn hue to the blooms and are lovely in the vases and keep for weeks inside. The dahlias are putting on quite a performance with color pops everywhere. Some of the big dinnerplate varieties are enormous and often snap over with the weight of the blooms. We planted just a few teddy bear sunflowers and I really love them and they have been photographed all the time. This week is apple picking and the pears are ready too. Never a dull moment. We will be in the kitchen making all the fruit into chutney etc next week. Raewyn wants to go home now so I will write another post shortly. Take care and enjoy the last month of supposed to be summer. Love Dot

25/01/2026

Hi, here are your photos that go with the post we have just written.
Enjoy

25/01/2026

Hello from the wet and dismal South. Where has summer gone? It has been quite a while since we last managed to write a post. Christmas and the New Year all blended into one and passed without much fuss from our families, but the restaurant and shops were extremely busy with all the holiday makers enjoying their time off. I was extremely glad the castle was closed as with Raewyn away for 3 weeks and all the garden staff having all the stat days off it made me over busy trying to keep everything watered and going. It was also the time when all the flowers for drying were ready to be picked and processed. We have completely filled the old barn with new flowers hanging in every room with hardly any space left for the remaining crop. The flower markets have sent me hundreds of bunches of roses to dry and they have filled my house conservatory twice as I have to box the dried ones up to make room for the next. The smell has been divine. Preserving lots of leaves now before they deteriorate with bug holes in the leaves. Have had great success with copper beech and oak and trying new types all the time with some preserving better than others. We have had an incredible crop of red and green gooseberries which Bevan loves in the kitchen for pies etc. The red ones are great as they have no thorns and produce prolifically. We had also a big crop of blackcurrants which this year were as big as my fingernails. More like blueberry size. Great in those smoothies, but also popular in blackcurrant and gooseberry shortcakes. This year we made a big effort to cover some of the cherry trees with bird netting. We bought some gigantic rolls from a winery which had pulled out the grapes and were selling off the netting. What a bonus for us. The roles where huge so had no trouble throwing the netting over the large trees. Guess how many cherries you have when the birds don't' eat them?. We thought they were delicious when the were red, but a little later on when they turned black that was a completely different fruit. It takes a lot of effort to pip crates of them and very messy but once in the freezer we can create whatever, later. We are now on to apricots and other stone fruit which is easier to handle. In the garden everything has grown as if it is on steroids'. The flower garden with the lilies are magnificent but all this rain is starting to spoil them. I quickly try to pull out the center stamens to stop the pollen washing onto the petals and staining them but that is not always possible .Everywhere I look I see thousands of jobs to do. Great growth also means great weeds. The castle is open again and we have been quite busy with tours. Meeting lots of overseas folk on holiday. Mrs peacock had four babies this spring and now they are everywhere eating their way around the vege plots. They trim the outside leaves around the cabbages, which annoys the gardeners. She is such a good mother. There are lots of kittens around the house at the moment from the wild cats. It is costing me a fortune to feed them while we try to tame them and work out our options with them. Well Raewyn has to add the photos so I will close and promise not to leave the next post so long. Cheers Happy New Year everyone. Are we so lucky to live in little New Zealand when you see what is happening around the globe. I am reading the seven sisters series by Lucinda Riley and enjoying them immensely so don't watch too much TV these days. I do enjoy Farmer wants a wife series though. Bye, Love Dot

14/01/2026

Castle tour season 2026

Days: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday each week.

Tour times: 10.00am, 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.00pm.

Book By Email: [email protected]

Book by phone: 027 233 0501

Tour prices: Adults $30, Children under 15 years $20 and children under 5 years free.

Payment will be made at the castle by eftpos or cash.

No need to book for individual tours, however if you are a large group (10 or more people) please contact Raewyn by email or phone.

A staff member will host the tour of the castle: you can either walk over to the castle or arrange for bus to drop you off a bit closer.

This will be a tour of the interior of the castle & will take approximately 1 to 1.25 hours. You are welcome to wander around the exterior gardens before or after the tour.

Be at the north entrance of the castle 10 minutes prior to your tour time- that's the entrance on the right as you look at the castle from the Riverstone complex.

Be aware that the top floor& dungeon can only be accessed by stairs, we do have disabled access via the west entrance for the ground floor.

No backpacks or handbags are to be carried around the castle. There is a place to hang them in the foyer while you tour, if you don't wish to leave your bag behind, please leave it in you car.

Please use the toilets at Riverstone Kitchen or country gift shop as the castle facilities will not be available during tours.

No Photos inside the castle unless approved by Dot or staff, you are welcome to take photos of the exterior & gardens.

Shoes must be removed prior to entry: socks or slippers are recommended.

Please park either in the main car park by the restaurant & shops or in the larger area south of the country gift shop. Buses, please use the south carpark...

We do have disability parking at the castle-Please arrange this by calling 027 233 0501

If you require refreshments or a meal at Riverstone Kitchen please book with them directly: 03 431 3505 or [email protected]

07/12/2025

Merry Christmas everyone. Only three weeks to go. I know it is probably my age now, but truly I do not know where the time has gone. It is six weeks since my last post and so much has happened. We have been planting out all the dried flower seedlings by the hundreds. Making extra places to try to get everything planted. We have taken to dumping compost onto the gravel in places and planting into that. I am going to be full on picking and drying them. Had a big clean out in the old storage shed and all ready to go with the new season's flowers. I found out that I have high blood pressure so have to take a tablet each day now, like most of the countries population, but also I have to walk for longer walks. I have been getting up earlier and walking around the farm tracks for an hour before work. What fun I have had watching all the grasses along the paper roadside develop. They started growing and I was amazed how many types and colors. Now I leave home with a pocket full of rubber bands and some scissors and have some very interesting bunches hanging to dry. The spring tulips and rhododendrons were spectacular. We had the best flowering ever. Now the roses have gone crazy with those very hot days a few weeks ago and I have picked dozens of bunches and have them drying in my house in the conservatory. It looks gorgeous and the smell is intoxicating as they dry. I used to not want to pick them previously as the roses were so admired by all the garden visitors, so now I pick the bushes leaving some all over and people do not miss what I have picked. The snapdragons in the front lawn border have been spectacular. The best I have ever grown and the colors were truly bright and amazing. Now we are filling bare gardens with marigolds, Amaranthus etc. Have lots of work to do in the vege gardens as lots have gone to seed and we need to replace many rows with the good old summer favorites, carrots, beans, beetroot, fennel etc. This season the hostas have been amazing. The slugs have just found them now and causing a few holes in them, but earlier on they looked great. Some are so tall they come up to my waist. I love walking around the gardens seeing the plants taking off and filling up the spaces. Mrs peacock has 4 chickens. One big male thinks he owns the pen and chases the other male around the garden. It sired the hen that has the chicks as his tail feathers have fallen out and the bossy one still has all his tail feathers so I am thinking he missed out. The short tailed one likes to sit in front of the french doors around the house and keeps himself company by looking at the glass doors at his reflection. Mark has put the pontoon up out the East steps at the castle by the lake. It is good to have finally got something at the end of the steps onto the lake. It is going to take a bit of effort to chase the roosting ducks and shags off it... I have spent two weeks putting Christmas up in the castle and now having big tour groups coming through to get inspiration. It looks lovely with all the lights. I really have not finished all areas I wanted to do, but I am finding it hard to fit all the jobs into my days at present. The shop is looking very festive with some gorgeous new product that came with the last container. It takes someone full time restocking the shelves with the sold items. With importing so much ourselves we have some uniquely different Christmas dolls, Santas, Mrs Claus, reindeer, pointsettiers etc. I will go over and take some photos for you. I will finish off now and go and take some photos so Raewyn can add them to the post. Take care everyone and I will post once more before it is time to celebrate. Love Dot

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06/11/2025

30/10/2025

Happy Halloween everyone