Visitors walk amongst the sunflowers at Taranaki Sunflower Meadow open days

Rosie Aiken-Tate, 18 months, picked a sunflower. Photo / Alyssa Smith

Taranaki’s Sunflower Meadow was filled with sunflowers and plenty of visitors during its first open weekend.

Morgan and Scott, of Sunflower Meadow Taranaki, planted 60,000 sunflowers, and Morgan says they were excited to open their doors to the public on Saturday and Sunday.

“We were blown away by the number of people who came through over the weekend. Within the first 15 minutes on Saturday, there were 110 cars parked in the carpark. We had a steady flow of people come in on both open days.”

Morgan’s favourite part of the weekend was seeing everyone enjoying themselves.

“We had little children around the age of one learning to walk, smiling in the field, and we had people over 90 smiling and enjoying themselves. Everyone seemed to have a great time. We’re so thankful for the people who turned up and supported us, and also to Flo-Jo Coffee Cart and Huianga School for providing food and drink on the day.”

Willow Caskey, four, picked her own sunflowers on Saturday and says it was great to walk in the field.

Willow Caskey, four, says the sunflowers were beautiful and smelt good. Photo / Alyssa Smith

“The sunflowers are pretty, they smell really nice and their colour is beautiful.”

Elijah Eksteen, four, was also there on Saturday, and says he was happy to be able to pick some to display at home.

“I had a lot of fun choosing the perfect sunflowers for our home.”

Morgan says there are two more open weekends planned, and plenty of fun activities at the Meadow.

“Keep your eye out on our events page to find all the details.”

Elijah Eksteen (4) enjoyed walking amongst the sunflowers. Photo/ Alyssa Smith

The Details:

What: Sunflower Meadows Taranaki.

Where: 631 Waitara Rd, New Plymouth.

Open days: January 21 and 22; Saturday 3pm-9pm, Sunday 10am-3pm. There are also private bookings for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (picnic bookings) from 8am-9pm, Saturday from 8am-1.30pm and Sunday from 4.30pm-9pm.

Cost: For open days: $5 a person, under-fives free. Eftpos available. $3 a stem for sunflowers.

Events: Visit https://sunflowermeadowtaranaki.simplybook.me/v2/ for more information on events, booking times and the cost of each event.