After out little Float Trip on the Avon we went just 50 meters before we saw a tram. The departure times did not allow enough time for us to head back to the apartment for lunch and come back to the gardens. So we got a snack at the Café. Our first time eating stuffed and fried dates. Plus an order of heirloom tomatoes and some artichoke hearts. Then when we were refueled, it was off into the gardens we went. There are 52 acres of gardens and so taking the tram was a great way to get oriented and cover some ground. We stopped midway and go off to visit the roses, the dahlias, the orchids and the begonias. Then we hopped back on and finished the tour. There were loads of flowers but also some very cool trees. They had a California Coastal Redwood that is growing a a very fast rate due to the water table here being closer to the surface. They had six Wollemi pine trees that were once thought to be extinct but were rediscovered in a pocket of a valley in Australia. This was a wonderful garden.
A funky yellow hedge
Flowers everywhere
Edibles and herbs
Good morning sunshine
A veggie garden along the river
Tall trees in the park on the way to the gardens
A pavilion for WW1 soldiers
the gates to the gardens
Still some walking involved
A bike with a trailer for a big kayak
A nice place for a sit down
It is rare to see a statue subject that is seated
Love the Peacock fountain
A church in Christchurch
Some thought this fountain too gaudy
It was made in a foundry in England and shipped over to NZ only to be mothballed in the 40's and stored for 60 years. But it was resurrected and flows today
Artichoke Hearts, heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella and stuffed fried dates
Our newest form of transportation
Ride the train, choo choo!
Big blooms
An Art Gallery
The start to the hedge
This runs for 150 meters
The California quail likes the hedge
A long herbaceous hedge
Slight pH changes give the different color flowers
The pine area
A huge trunk
An Australian tree that does not normally grow in this spiral way
A classic Māori symbol
This area housed the rainforest, the cacti, the begonias and the orchids
The cactus area led to the orchids
The orchid garden did not disappoint
Big showy orchids
Some oddities in with the orchids
Micro orchids
Pitcher plants
Very beautiful pitcher plants
Some dry ice for a showy look
A fine lady slipper
A two tone orchid
One of the weirdest orchids I have seen
So nice to see all of them
A bright green ground cover
We have arrived to begonia central
Begonia heaven
These begonias were in hanging pots
So fancy
The color on the edge is something special
These leaves grow out in a spiral manner
Amaryllis
A couple more begonias
Like tissue paper
Red white and pink
Yes we did stop and smell the roses
The orange roses are tall
A classic red rose
We are surrounded
Pinks
A perfect white rose
My camera had a hard time dealing with the intensity of the color
Roses as far as the eye can see
A rose that is 10 feet tall is still a rose
Ernest Shackleton the Antarctic explorer calibrated his magnetic instruments here before his expedition
Outside the rose garden are these dahlias
So delicate
So varied
So many colors and shapes
Multicolored and branched
These dahlias are so symmetric
Oh, the riot of colors
What is not to love?
A more formal bed of flowers planted in rows
The Avon River
Paradise Shelduck
The male paradise shelduck
A rare Wollemi Pine tree thought to be extinct
A California Coastal Redwood
The shaft tree looks mostly dead but they are actually alive
A bright blue green tree really stands out
This is the first tree planted in the gardens in 1863. This area what primarily wetlands and sand dunes before it was transformed into the gardens
Very knobbly tree trunk
A bird like sculpture
Inside the tree the lower branches are all on the ground
Outside the tree looks like a Christmas tree
A cool interactive sculpture is kinetic and water powered
The bird flaps its wings
Not flapping now
The faces spin
The wheel turns
It was fun to see it all move
The first four floors are in white. The additional floors were added on but designed to blend in with the tree canopy when seen from the gardens.
An odd ball of flowers
A huge bloom
A bit of rogue metal detecting in the park on our way home
It has been 236 days since we began out Migration
