Botanic Gardens 31/8/2020

I realised recently it had been almost exactly a year since the last time I visited the Auckland Botanic Gardens (They’re so far away!) and that had to be remedied. So, I took my chance on a day eerily similar to last year with a sheet of grey sky, occasional drizzle, odd spots of blazing sunshine and spent the day in the gardens. Armed with a packed lunch, some episodes of The Off Menu Podcast, and some art supplies.
The drive out was lovely, through the tunnel - exciting, past the airport - getting a long way out, past Rainbow’s End - was Rainbow’s End always this far away? Then the signs saying ‘Next stop, Hamilton’ start coming up and just when you think you’ve definitely missed it, there it is!
The first thing to love about the Botanic Gardens is that the garden starts in the carpark. There are labelled trees and shrubs between the rows of cars. The cocooning of greenery from the second you arrive makes the whole experience feel worlds away from the actual real world.

It was the first day the gardens were open again after us all staying home for a bit. The chalky welcome was the most joyful way I’ve seen anywhere dealing with everything.
It’s hard to not be reassured that everything will be ok when you’re thinking about hopscotch.

Days away from the official start of kōanga (spring), the daffodils were putting on a show. The Spring Blossom Valley boasts a variety of different daffodils (Daffodils are my favourite flower and they were my Grandad’s too!).

There weren’t too many trees in blossom yet, the ones that were were heavy with tūī putting on quite a show with their singing and gliding between the Prunus Campanulata (A kind of cherry tree) and the Kōwhai.

One of my favourite parts of the gardens isn’t the plants, it’s the other people in the gardens. The gardens are free for anyone to visit, there are people there to see each other, people there to see the plants, people walking dogs, people walking children. People walking for a walk, people walking for the plants, people feeding the ducks. There are families, friends, couples, soloists (like me!). There are people in botanic garden uniforms looking after specific plants and beds, people in high-vis doing herbicide spraying on the main lawn areas. Seeing so many disparate groups of people all at the gardens to enjoy their day somehow emphasised the garden’s cocooning effect. We were all brought together by some really nice plants, nothing else mattered.

I filled half of my sketchbook on this visit to the gardens. (I’ll have to take a second trip to finish it off, oh the hardship). Here for you now is Part One of the Botanic Garden sketchbook. Please enjoy!