Wellington Journal

Botanic Gardens

Since I know my mom won't consider my tremendously long post about New Zealand electrical outlets as fulfilling my duties to keep her posted about the important things (read: her grandchildren), I offer her (and you) some pictures of the Wellington Botanic Gardens.

We've lived in cities with gardens, zoos, etc before and we've always visited and been impressed and such, but Wellington's Botanic Gardens is something special. Perhaps just because we take Alison there almost every day, these gardens feel more "ours" than pretty much anywhere in Wellington (save our house).

And these gardens are impressive: huge and quite beautiful. The land was set aside for this purpose in 1868, which is particularly amazing considering that Wellington was settled by Europeans in 1840. They have beautiful flowers (of course), but also a fantastic playground, duck pond, treehouse-based visitors' center, and even a cable car that takes you from the top of the gardens (with a fantastic view of the city) down to the quays. I think my favorite part of it all are all the paths that wind through the garden, with nooks & crannies just waiting to be explored. At this point, most of my "exploring" has been limited to the path that takes us from the main gate to the playground, but I'm hoping for more time to explore on my own. Maybe when I take up jogging again.*

In the meantime, a few snapshots to sate your appetite, Mom:


* I'm joking. That won't happen.

Labels: Wellington

posted by Dug @ 12:55 PM