My Space: Sarah Han
3 August 2026
The horticulturalist's favourite spot on campus is beneath a liquid amber tree, which puts on a show of colour as the seasons change.
A carpet of leaves underfoot is one of the defining features of the University’s City Campus in the cooler months.
And while it’s among Sarah Han’s tasks to blow, sweep and rake up the leaves that colour the grounds, she loves them all the same.
The horticulturalist’s favourite spot on campus is under a liquid amber tree outside Biological Sciences’ Thomas Building. It sits in the oldest section of the City Campus, home to a huge variety of special and stunning trees, and the liquid amber puts on a particular show with the changing of the seasons.
“I feel like time moves too fast these days, but being in nature slows it down,” says Sarah. “Being among these trees and seeing the seasons change makes me feel small; it humbles me every day.”
Sarah’s role involves keeping the grounds safe, clean and tidy for students, staff and visitors. On any given day she could be chainsawing a fallen branch, pruning, planting, weeding or fertilising.
I feel like time moves too fast these days, but being in nature slows it down.
She has been a member of the grounds team for a year, returning to the University where she initially studied pharmacology, but ultimately gained a degree in biology, compelled by her love of plants. A postgraduate diploma in horticulture from Massey University followed. She then spent time working in Hawke’s Bay in apple breeding and later with MPI back in Auckland.
“I decided that job wasn’t for me though, because it was mainly indoors. I felt like I couldn’t see the seasons change, I couldn’t see time passing. You lose sight of everything when you’re indoors.”
Sarah recently represented the University at the Young Amenity Horticulturalist of the Year event, competing in areas like irrigation, pest and weed identification, public speaking and leadership. The amenity sector has an ageing workforce, so one of the competition tasks was to create a business idea that would help engage young people with the industry.
Engagement doesn’t seem to be a problem for Sarah, who says working on the University grounds is like being in a village, where she meets and greets familiar faces every day.
“I feel lucky because it’s a rare job to have. There’s physical labour but there’s also so much science behind what we do – the pruning, the fertilising, the propagating. And although I do like plants, it’s the people in our team who make the job so enjoyable.
“I would love to work here until I retire. This is exactly where I want to be.”
– Caitlin Sykes
This article first appeared in the August 2026 issue of UniNews.