Miyazu Japanese Garden Loop
Nelson · Nelson-Tasman · Loop
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. Nelson City Council’s own wording: “Nelson City Council Dog Control Policy 2020, Schedule Two ("Dogs are Permitted but must be Kept on a Leash"), item 3: "Horticultural Parks. These are: Miyazu Japanese Gardens, Anzac Memorial Park, Church Hill, Melrose Gardens, Queens Gardens, Broadgreen Gardens and Isel Park. The exception to the on leash requirement is the less cultivated part of Isel Park which begins at Main Road Stoke and extends to the Isel Park entrance gate, as well as the area south of the access road beyond the Isel Park entrance gate." Miyazu is named first in that clause and the one exception is Isel Park, so the lead stays on for the whole loop”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Miyazu Japanese Garden Loop
Miyazu Japanese Garden Loop covers 0.5 km, near Nelson in Nelson-Tasman, walked as a loop.
Nelson’s Japanese garden, built for the city’s sister-city tie with Miyazu in Kyoto Prefecture and tucked off Atawhai Drive on the northern side of town. The loop drawn here is the full circuit of the made paths inside the garden, which our line measures at 465 m on the flat. The garden’s paths curve tightly and our drawing smooths them, so the real walking distance round the circuit is nearer 590 m. Either way it is under ten minutes at a walk, and a good deal longer if your dog stops at every new smell. It closes back on itself, so there is no out and back and no decision to make at the far end. It is a small place and the point of it is not distance. The path works its way round the pond and its bridge, past clipped plantings, stone lanterns and the teahouse, with seats along the way and parking at the entrance, which is the bit Inge flagged and the bit that matters if you are coming across town. The surface is made path the whole way and the ground barely moves, so it suits older dogs, sore hips and pram wheels as well as anything in Nelson does. The lead stays on, and that is the council’s rule rather than ours. Nelson City Council lists Miyazu Japanese Gardens as a Horticultural Park in Schedule Two of its dog control policy, where dogs are permitted but must be kept on a leash. The one exception written into that clause is part of Isel Park, not this one. It suits the garden anyway: the paths are narrow, the plantings come right to the edge of them, and there are koi and ducks on the water. We have not published opening hours for it, on purpose. The garden is gated and the sources we can find disagree about when it shuts, particularly over winter, and we would rather say nothing than send you across town to a locked gate. Check the sign at the entrance, or ring the council, before you make a special trip late in the day.
Expect easy, near-level going, and takes about 5 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Inge & Pip suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
