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Friday, April 13, 2007

Botanic Garden

Hooray~~~~! Easter break began!

Abandoned my blog for some time, now its time for me to update my blog again…

My easter break began with a visit to Wellington Botanic Garden. It is known as New Zealand’s jewels and rated as a Garden of National Significance. Around 11.30 am, we – Wyne, Wan Ling, Elun & me began our journey. At the cable car entrance, we could have a breathtaking view of the whole city. After grabbing myself a map, we began to explore this beautiful botanic garden with full enthusiasm. Luckily, the weather was pretty nice, not too cold nor too hot, with a little bit of sunshine compensated with some cooling breeze…As we stepped further into the garden, it’s undeniably a haven for those who wanna escaped from hustle and bustle of city life. The atmosphere here is indeed appealing with so many green lush bushes along the path and a wide array of colourful flowers welcome u along the way, presenting a picture of wonderland which is free from tension and distress, perfect place for relaxation. hehe =p Our first stop is at the Australian Garden. Yet, disappointedly, there are not much exotic plants we could observe. Further down, along the way, we are mesmerized by some of the unique plants and exotic tree branches. Next, we headed the Succulent Garden. Here we could catch sight of cactus and other various types of succulent plants. We also came across Fern Garden before we reached the Fragrance Garden. By the time you reach this area, the ambiance is totally different where you are embraced by the pleasant smell from the white lilies, red roses and purple lavenders. It’s really a delightful experience as you can’t have it back in Malaysia. In the botanical garden itself, besides usual stuff like flora and fauna, it is surprisingly that there are some artworks and statues to be observed. The first art piece we came across is Centennial Sundial. It’s like a globe where it has some time indication on it. In fact, it is a gift from Wellington City Council to commemorate a century of management of the Garden. The next stop we reached was the Main Garden where we could see the colourful seasonally changing floral displays and the Joy Fountain in the middle. Besides, we could see some special genetics of flowers like the “Tower of London” has purple petals inside of its red petals and “ Ballet girl” has petals of mixture colours of red and white. Unique isn’t it? It has been dubbed that these lovely flowers display have been made up to become a lively ruby ‘necklace’! truly amazing.. So, I suggested to those of you who come to Wellington must visit this garden… After taking lots and lots of photos, we walked up to the Herb Garden. Various kinds of plants here are labeled with its medication purposes.

The next stop we hanged on is the award-winning Lady Norwood Rose Garden. It is truly a legend, with so many beds of red, pink, yellow, purple and white roses tidily well-groomed and systematically arranged in a round shape. In the middle, there is a fountain and a duck pond where you can see few ducks swimming happily around. Next to the Rose Garden is the Begonia and Lily House. In this house, it contains tropical and temperate floral displays. As you walked in the transparent glass made house, u will get the chance to have an unsurpassed view of vibrant displays of almost all kinds of flora and fauna. Tropical plants like orchids and hibiscus are found too but the hibiscus seems bit skinny compared to m’sia ‘s hibiscus…haha.. Mostly all the flowers are so NICE till I wonder are these flower fake?… Hehe =p
Later on, we moved on to the Waterfall and Peace Flame section. Peaceful and tranquility are the words that best fit here. The main feature here is the Peace Flame- the white sculpture situated in front of the waterfall. It’s presented by the Japanese to NZ in salute to this country to halt the spread of atomic weapons. As we moved ahead, we came across a black granite staircase named Body to Soul. This staircase was designed in13 steps engraved with a word sequence BODY to SOUL. A creative masterpiece indeed! The final artwork we came across is Inner Form. It was presented to the city under the Arts Bonus Scheme.

An exciting trip!