Botanic Gardens 14/9/2020

So, from once in a year to twice in a fortnight. This time accompanied by the lovely Sanette and Zoe we were ready to see the gardens wearing their kōanga (spring) best.

While they weren’t all fully in bloom just yet, that didn’t stop the birds from having a ball.
There were bumblebees and honeybees enjoying all of the new season nectar too, bumblebees definitely shouldn’t be able to fly with the amount of pollen the were packing on their saddlebags.

The 14th of Mahuru was the first day of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori! And on that Mane, at 12pm it was Te Wā Tukureo Māori, or, Māori Language Moment. Reo Māori got as many people as they could to sign up to join the hour of 12pm-1pm engaging with Te Reo Māori in some way. Kōrero, whakarongo, ako, tākaro, waiata, pānui, or any other way to connect with te reo.
I was glad that we spent that hour in the native plant gardens. There are a lot of native plants I hadn’t seen in bloom before and what a treat it was to see them. After the gardens I did more research and it turns out our plants are even cooler than I had realised. And, harakeke (flax) has uses in traditional māori medicine, but is liable to give you diarrhoea so maybe tread lightly there.

Once again the best part of the trip was the people. The people having a picnic in the brief sunshine over the Native Plant Ideas garden. The gardener over in the Plant Trials garden who went with the fall over and dropped onto the soft grass like a mildly inconvenienced Mrs Bennet…although there’s a very good chance she wouldn’t also have been holding a Black & Decker drill in the air when she flopped. There were some outrageously trendy people in the Magnolia Garden. And the woman walking two huskies through the Spring Blossom Valley, not only was she unreasonably cool, her dogs were BEAUTIFUL and one of them was pulling a tyre. Do you have a dog that’s into crossfit? I didn’t think so.
My favourite people though were definitely Sanette and Zoe who were a delight as always, and they found hidden gems I would have walked right past if they hadn’t been there.

And now, the second act of the red sketchbook: