Three more pretty pictures which, as I keep saying, are easy to find in New Zealand. Thanks are due to Hamilton Gardens and, surprisingly, to the Ingress community — yes, that augmented-reality game that I’m still playing, two years later.
It hadn’t been raining much, so they were spraying down this pine tree in the Japanese Garden of Contemplation.
What happened was, we wanted to do some touristing south of Auckland and Lauren noticed that Hamilton was a reasonably-short drive from all the places we wanted to see, so we put up at a decent motel there.
Little fountain in the English Flower Garden.
We’d planned on a little Ingress tourism and got introduced to the NZ Resistance, a friendly and welcoming bunch. (Don’t want to brag, but we built the prettiest layer of fields imaginable all the way from Paihia up nearly to Cape Reinga.)
Anyhow, we asked the community what there was to do with kids in Hamilton and a couple of people recommended the Garden. Hardly an intuitive choice, but it’s just so terrifically great that I can’t imagine anyone not liking it.
Idol and chain, both old, in the Chinese Scholars Garden.
Among its many virtues is being free. So thanks, I guess, to the good citizens of Hamilton.
The gardens named in the picture captions are the Paradise collection, six traditional constructions embedded in the larger garden. They’re jewels, not small either, and integrate dazzling views onto the Waikato River.
I don’t have anything from the Modernist Garden, said to feature “West Coast American style”; and yeah, West Coast Canadian isn’t that different, there are lots like it in millionaires’ waterfront joints here in Vancouver. Made me snicker.
I also have nothing particularly good from my favorite, the Indian Char Bagh Garden. I have no notion of Indian gardens but oh my goodness; I literally gasped out loud at the intensity of color and purity of form when I walked in. If you’re anywhere near, you need to go.
