Monday, August 9, 2010

Auckland's Secret Garden The Wintergarden



The Wintergarden in Auckland is perhaps Auckland's best kept secret after the fact that Auckland City Libraries has the four first folios of Shakespeare.

It is the most beautiful Victorian/Edwardian greenhouse ever and is on a par with Chelsea. Whichever season you go it is always a smash hit. I love it as you can see in the video below.

The Wintergarden was built in 1913 for the International Exhibition and is the only remnant left of this long forgotten event. I know all about it as I am a collector of NZ postage stamps for which the NZ Post issued a set of stamps well over prints and genuine overprints of these stamps are worth a considerable amount of serious money. It took me several years to save up for them.

So for me the Wintergarden holds a double fascination.

I felt a poem coming on for YouTube, 'The Daffodils' by Wordsworth which I learned at my drama/ballet school. Luckily it is winter here in NZ so I thought I might be lucky and find some in the Wintergarden... no such luck! It was kale again. Whenever I go in winter it is always kale and cactus. Not really what I wanted but as usual it was a fabulous display of cabbages and prickly things.

My poem will have to wait a fortnight until the Auckland Regional Gardens mass display of daffs. I mean I must have some massed daffs 'fluttering and dancing in the breeze' and with YouTube being tough on copyright these days they have to be my own images! I don't want Google ads all over my channel.

If you come to Auckland make sure you visit the Wintergarden as you will not be disappointed.

No comments:

Post a Comment