Dead Rabbits Run

A Wairarapa Garden with a Past, a Future, and a Bit of Magic

Dead Rabbits Run isn’t just a garden — it’s a living tapestry woven by Derek and Anne over decades. From paddock to paradise, each path winds through memory, whimsy, and the joy of things that grow.

When Derek and Anne first arrived on this once-ravaged land, rabbits had stripped it bare. Native seedlings were devoured overnight. The name Dead Rabbits Run was born of necessity, not whimsy. But where pests once thrived, now kererū, tūī, and tiny geckos flourish. The garden they’ve created over 12 years is part sanctuary, part storybook — blending native bush with romantic exotics, bonsai, dahlias, and a stumpery where moss and fungi reclaim twisted roots.

Each corner of the garden reflects something personal — a memory, a tribute, a favourite plant passed down through generations. The newest development honours Anne’s late sister, Julie. The house, once a rat-infested bunkhouse, is now a contemporary home wrapped in scent, colour, and birdsong. .

Dead Rabbits Run is more than a garden. It’s a braided landscape of wild and cultivated, native and exotic, where conservation meets imagination — and where everything, in Anne’s words, “bows to the native trees.”