I finally made it back to New Zealand after two years of all the travel restrictions Covid 19 brought. It was still not easy travel but at least I got to see family again. In the last few days of the trip I visited the Auckland Botanical Gardens. (The name is plural but all the gardens are together in one place.) You pass by them on the motorway just south of Manukau City. The garden was only established in 1982 so I have been waiting for the trees and gardens to mature a bit before finally visiting. It does not have the Wow factor of Hamilton Garden but I spent a very pleasant few hours looking around with a relative. My favorite areas were the Edibles garden and the African Plants garden. It was also fun to watch all the eels in the pond below the bridge at the rose gardens. Entrance is free. If you want more information you can go to https://www.aucklandbotanicgardens.co.nz for more info. Below are a few photos from the day. As usual, you can click on them to enlarge the photo to see better.
|
The entrance building and cafe with shaped, native Mingimingi bushes in front. |
|
Lake with native trees on the bank. |
|
A mini forest of Camellia trees with lifted canopy and fallen petals on the ground. |
|
The Children's garden filled with a wide variety of plants for botanical discovery. |
|
The New Zealand native plant area. |
|
The Worm Farm shed in the vegetable garden area. Comfrey and Rosemary in front. |
|
The huge lawn area at the back where dogs were allowed to run off leash. |
|
The African garden |
|
I loved this rustic garden shelter. |
|
The hard working gardeners. |
Aloha