NEWS & UPDATES

So, what's been happening at Muddy Hill lately?

29 May 2026 Price increases... ugh. Given the current fuel crisis, transport costs have increased significantly. As we begin prepare orders for our spring collection, all of our suppliers have also advised of increasing prices with some as high as +30% due to increases in materials & associated transport costs. While we'll be working very hard to keep price increases for next spring to a minimum, sadly they are inevitable. This isn't really a sales pitch, but if you've had your eye on a piece for a while, the time to purchase is sooner rather than later. Enjoy the long weekend & stay warm out there! Best, Sandy 11 May 2026 Well, I have to admit I'm a little humbled at how well our Autumn '26 collection has been received. Over twenty pieces from our catalogue have already found their forever homes since our shipment arrived late last month! I've started to work on some new pieces our spring collection will include, and we also have an exciting local collaboration with The Refined Forge to unveil in the next few months. Thanks to all of you who have purchased or enjoyed a visit to the gallery recently. You may have noticed the recent inclusion of a review page on our website - we would love you to share your experience with us if you have a minute or two to spare! 22 April 2026 Our autumn collection has finally strolled in and is now ready for viewing! Several pieces have already been claimed, so if you'd like to enjoy as many of our lovely new works as possible, don't wait too long. We'll be here all Anzac weekend if you're out and about. April 2026 We have touch-down! Maersk Rio India docked as scheduled at Port Chalmers yesterday morning, so we're expecting to see our new collection here at the gallery sometime next week. If you're on our mailing list, you'll receive a notification as soon as we're ready to launch & before we start advertising. A dusting of snow on the Crown Range this morning. Stay warm! March 2026 Bad news today. Our shipment has been delayed again, new ETA to Port Chalmers is 13 April. Soooo disappointing for this to have happened twice. We've hosted several lovely visits to the gallery in the last week or so. More pieces have left for their new homes, and several of the pieces arriving for our Autumn collection have already been snapped up. We still have a nice selection here at the gallery but will be over the moon to see our new shipment when it eventually wanders in! If you're keeping an eye on the ETA for our pots & urns, please contact me and I'll add you to our waiting list so you get a heads-up before we start advertising them. We have a couple of dozen arriving but I suspect they won't be here for long... February 2026 For those of you waiting for pieces & pots, so sorry, but there's been a hold-up with shipping due to global port congestion and adverse weather conditions affecting multiple ports... Our new ETA to Port Chalmers is March 30, so we should see all of our lovely new pieces around 9/10 April. Fingers crossed!! January 2026 Another busy month at the gallery, and good news this week - our next shipment is on target to be on its way to us early next month, ETA mid-March. Quality control inspections are underway, due to be completed between now & the end of the month, then our collection will be collated and packed up ready for its journey to Queenstown. Exciting! We had a fabulous day earlier in the month at the Lake Hayes A&P Show (great venue for us, only two minutes drive from home!). Given our history with the show, we decided to offer a one-day only 15% discount which attracted a lot of interest and resulted in some lovely pieces finding their new homes. Our display drew a lot of attention from visitors to NZ who were attending the show, and we've even had requests for quotes for international shipping on a couple of the larger pieces. Our thoughts & prayers are with those further north who've suffered so badly with natural disasters in recent weeks. Sandy December 2025 And just like that, it's nearly Christmas! Last-minute gift ideas? We still have lots of special pieces that would make great gifts for those hard-to-buy-for family & friends. I love pieces that make me smile when I'm passing them as I work in the garden, or when I'm wandering around early in the morning enjoying that first cuppa of the day. We had a wonderful weekend at the Ayrburn Christmas markets, we're so fortunate to have a world-class venue right on our doorstep (and even better that our stand was right next to the coffee cart, we definitely took advantage of that between chatting to shoppers who stopped to browse or enquire!). Wishing your and yours a safe & happy holiday season. We're taking a few days off to spend time with our own family but won't be straying too far from home. If you're out our way and the gates are open, pop in & say hi. Best, Sandy November 2025 Wow, I didn't really anticipate so many of our lovely new pieces rushing out of the gate as quickly as they have! A big thank you to all you who have purchased recently - the attention our little gallery is attracting is quite humbling. Thanks also to all of you who follow us on Socials and support us with likes, loves and comments. And if you have a couple of spare moments, we'd love to grow our Google reviews too :) Good news, I've already placed our next order and new pieces will commence production next week with an ETA of March 2026. Yes, there will be more pots & urns, but as always, in limited numbers due to container size constraints. If you're out our way, call in for a wander around the garden - the peonies are just beginning to flower & will be looking their best over the next few weeks. Happy gardening! Sandy October 2025 I'm not sure where this month has gone, but I'm pretty sure it's rained nearly every day... our spring collection arrived early this morning and we unpacked it in the snow. Yes, snow! Fortunately, the day warmed and by early afternoon the white stuff was gone, but it's wrecked havoc on my poor tulips & peonies. But having been down south over Labour Weekend and seen the utter devastation first-hand, I think we've gotten off pretty lightly & should count our blessings. So we're all unpacked, rapt with all of the new pieces we have to offer this season and are looking forward to a busy week of getting everything organised here at the gallery. This is where I'm going to apologise for our lack of pots this spring - I completely underestimated the demand and we have only a few pots & urns left. Our next order is nearly ready to be placed, so we'll have more stock in a few months time. September 2025 Well, with the very first daffodil opening up yesterday, I guess we have to conclude that spring is finally here, although with the frost we had this morning I'm still pretty dubious! I've been busy updating the site with some of the lovely new pieces we're expecting in our spring shipment. Container stuffing begins today and we have an ETA to Port Chalmers of 20 October, so all going well we'll have our stock here the last week in October. There are twenty three new styles on the way which is pretty exciting, make sure you're on our mailing list to get a heads-up when they arrive. August 2025 Well, who would have expected we'd have such a busy run on pots & urns in August? It's been all go since we arrived home from our latest sourcing tour on the 8th, and a good chunk of our latest shipment of terracotta has flown out the door in the last couple of weeks. We still have a few lovely pieces left, but if you're in the market you'll need to be quick! Unfortunately we won't have any more arriving until early next year as our spring shipment, due late October - early November is packed to the brim with other lovely goodies. We had another successful tour, had the best time catching up with suppliers old and new, and are delighted with the way some of our new comissioned pieces have taken shape. We can't wait for them to arrive & share them with you. With spring just around the corner, it's a great time to start thinking about how you might further enhance your favourite outdoor spaces - check out our catalogue for some inspiration! 15 July 2025 Only a few days now until we head away on our next sourcing tour and to check on work in progress for our spring catalogue, so apologies, the Gallery will be closed to visitors from July 20 - August 9. We're excited to be visiting old friends and meeting new ones who we hope will have pieces to further enhance our collection. And, to be honest, just as excited to be leaving the cold behind for some warmer temperatures, too! Just had to share the photo on the left of 'Ruadh', our life-size stag, installed not far from Arrowtown last week. It's a stunning, elevated spot for him and I can't wait to go back in spring to see how he looks when the hawthorne behind him greens up. Keep an eye on our socials for updates & photos from our sourcing tour! 30 June / 1 July 2025 Our new stock has arrived! It's like Christmas right now at Muddy Hill - much unwrapping of parcels, squeals of delight (me) and photographs taken. And such a perfect for it day with lots of sunshine & snow on the mountains. June 2025 Put a ring around it - only two weeks until our new shipment touches down in Port Chalmers then another few days until it arrives here at Muddy Hill! There'll be just enough time to get all of our lovely new pieces unpacked, catalogued, photographed and loaded up here on the website before we set off on our next sourcing tour for our spring stock on July 20. If you're on our mailing list, you'll get a heads-up as soon as we go live. And to all of our clients who have pre-orders arriving, thanks for your patience - the majority of pieces in each shipment are crafted to order for our gallery, so from order, production, quality control, collation, packing & shipping it's always about a five month wait... which seems like forever!! I've just placed a further order for our Corten collection for spring (ETA November). Some favourites will be back along with a some lovely new surprises. Stay warm out there! Sandy May 2025 Just a quick update - all of the pieces in our next shipment are ready! Container stuffing is scheduled for May 7 and we have an ETA to Port Chalmers of 23 June. We had a fabulous day at the ASB Market Day last weekend as part of the Arrowtown Autumn Festival, it was a great networking day & thanks to our clients who dropped by to say hello & tell us how much they're enjoying their purchases - the feedback is greatly appreciated & quite humbling - we love what we do! I'm already working on some new styles for our spring catalogue (ETA November), including water features & bird baths which we often get enquiries for. Sandy April 2025 We have snow on the mountains! Autumn is really sinking her teeth in, and we have a wicked cold snap which has also brought lots of lovely rain which we really do need. It's official - we are completely out of Corten sculptures until our next shipment arrives. I've been getting regular production updates from suppliers and we still look to be on schedule for container stuffing late April/early May, so still on track to have lots of lovely new stock here mid-year, although several of the larger pieces are pre-sold. We're super-happy with the way the new styles are looking and can't wait to have them here at the Gallery to enjoy before they find their new homes. Interesting fact - we're sending more pieces to the North Island than are staying down south presently and big shout out to Booth's Logistics who do such a great job of moving items all over the country for us - love your work, team! Take care & stay warm Sandy February 2025 Wow, it's been a busy start to the year! Both January & February were record months for the Gallery, so thank you to all of you who chose to purchase from us, especially to those of you who sent photos of your piece in its new home. Our Corten steel sculptures have been very popular with just our (I think) fabulous life-size mare left for us to enjoy until she finds a home, but if you missed out, don't worry, I've recently placed our next order and we have more on the way! We took the gallery off-site for a day and hosted our first ever trade stand at Lake Hayes A&P Show in early January, which went amazingly well, and we'll be flying the flag again at the Arrowtown Autumn Festival market day in late April. And earlier this month we hosted guests of the annual Queenstown Plunket Gardens & Galleries tour - I had the best time chatting about the Garden Gallery and of course, the garden! Our local Plunket ladies do a stellar job of organising the event - grateful thanks to them for both the invitation to be included & for the support they provided with their lovely garden ambassadors each day. Our catalogue is getting a little thin but there's still lots of lovely options to choose from, and our next shipment is in production with an ETA of late June/early July. There are quite a few pre-orders included in the next shipment but still plenty of room for some exciting new pieces (photos on this page are examples only of new styles we have coming) and a top-up of pots, urns and some of the more popular pieces which have sold out. Remember, we only offer items as single pieces and in limited quantities (except for some smaller pieces like the much-loved hares) so if anything catches your eye please reach out so we can alert you if/when it's back in stock. There's only one more day before summer officially ends & autumn begins... I suppose it won't be long before it's time to drag the dreaded rake out, but so much glorious autumn colour to enjoy between now and then. Happy gardening! Sandy