Wellington Botanic Gardens

A few weekends ago, J and I went for a walk around the Botanic Gardens. Before I get to the pictures, I'll tell you a few things that have been brought to my attention about them.

1) Approximately 99.9% of Kiwis call them the "Botanical" Gardens. It says "Botanic" on the signs, but the use of "Botanical" is so pervasive that I started to think that perhaps I'd read them wrong. However, I was privileged enough to meet a member of the .1% who say it correctly, in the form of one of the parents at work. She heard me talking about them, and delightedly said, "Wow, finally a person who actually says Botanic instead of Botanical!" She is my favourite parent now, both for her enjoyment of proper word use and because her statement relieved my worries about my inability to read signs. So it is Botanic, and Kiwis, usually the kings/queens of abbreviation, have chosen, for some reason, to lengthen this word. (Perhaps it is a bit like Kansan's habit of ending sentences with prepositions, even when the sentence requires no prepositions at all).

2) The reason that I was talking to this wonderful parent about said gardens is that every week, we take a group of children from our room and walk the two blocks over to the gardens, where we spend a couple hours out in nature, learning and exploring. It is still a fairly new part of our programme, and much less developed than many "nature-based learning" programmes that are popping up all around NZ (and around the world). It is something that we as a teaching team are really working to expand and improve, but it is already a wonderful time to get out of the centre and climb trees, collect acorns, observe ducks, find cicada shells, balance on stone walls, etc. We are always looking for ways for children to connect to nature and to challenge themselves.

3) I love that many cities in NZ have Botanic Gardens. There is so much natural beauty in this country, but I also feel that people are more aware of it, and beauty is planned into places where people live and work, which is wonderful.

4) I get to bike through the Botanic Gardens on the way to work every day. Or, if I take the bus for some reason, I walk through a different part. It's quite nice, especially since the rest of my bike ride is rather traffic-heavy and intense.

I didn't take a lot of pictures while we were there this time. You can also look back at my post from the first time J and I went to the gardens, back in November 2013, which has a few pictures. Click here to go to that post. 

This sculpture reminded me of the Inukshuks we saw in Ottawa.

I love how this sculpture, while being made of hard, shiny stone, actually blends in with its surroundings, courtesy of light, shadow, and reflection.

I'm pretty sure that this tornado-looking sculpture was made just for us Kansans!

Look at the crazy way this vine has looped around the tree!

I found this rock garden/succulent area very beautiful.

I love this wooden carving of a beekeeper, but J thought it was a bit strange.

Eyes like this, made of paua (abalone) shells are common in Māori carvings. I like that touch, as the rest of it is not in the Māori style, but that little touch grounds it in NZ.

I don't know what kind of bird this is, but I was very appreciative of it for being willing to sit still while I took a picture, and in such a lovely spot. I am always seeing all kinds of beautiful birds around, but they always fly away before I can take a picture. So this one, while simple and brown, wins the thoughtfulness award, which is more important than beauty anyway.

I am becoming increasingly fond of eucalyptus trees. This one didn't smell much, but it is still beautiful.

The Botanic Gardens is planning and working on a Children's Garden section that will open sometime this year, I think. We're planning to get our children involved, which will be really fun. I'm looking forward to continuing to get to know these gardens better.