Tag: gardens

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Square Pavilion at Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden

A tranquil pond with water lillles in the foreground and a Chinese style Pavilion behind.

Dunedin’s Chinese Garden was a real highlight of my time in the city and well worth a visit. The garden is in the traditional yuanlin style and was design by Cao Yongkang and Chen Ling.The garden was pre-fabricated and assembled in Shanghai, then dismantled and transported to Dunedin where it was reconstructed by artisans and supervisors from Shanghai. It was opened in 2008. Dunedin is twinned with Shanghai, China. Visiting the Lan Yuan garden brought back wonderful memories of my short visit to the Yu Garden in Shanghai.

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Ceramic mural at Oamaru Chinese Garden

A colourful red dragon ceramic mural on a park wall surrounded by greenery.

Oamaru Public Gardens is home to New Zealand’s first Chinese garden, officially opened in 1995. This colourful ceramic tile mural caught my eye as soon as I walked into the gardens. It is by artist Christine Black and sponsored by Otago Daily Times. The garden was built as a symbol of the friendship between Oamaru and the large Chinese community in the Waitaki district. The garden is a peaceful and serene space with a rockery, water features and sculptures. This colourful red dragon was my highlight of the visit.

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Walking through St Stephen’s Green Dublin

Over a dozen people walking along a path in a lush green park, surround by trees and sunlight. Most of the people are looking down at their phones.

St Stephen’s Green was my favourite park in Dublin. It is a welcome reprieve from the hustle and bustle of central Dublin’s many shops, bars and crowds. We took our lunch down there on a sunny summers day and had a great time. There are a couple of lovely ponds with birds on them. I really like how the bright sunlight is coming through the tree canopy above this long path through the park. It took me a few minutes to realise this but do you notice that everyone is on their phones? I count 23 people in this photograph and more than half of them are on their phones. We realised that this was actually a Pokemon event. Specially, this was Pokemon GO Fest 2024. Where the community of people who play the Pokemon Go mobile phone game, come together to meet up in person to play. It was amazing to see people of all ages and backgrounds playing the game. There were even some groups of people who had dressed up as their favourite characters from the game.

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Herbaceous border at Blarney Gardens

A serene garden pathway leads away from the camera. Framed with vibrant plants and colourful flowers on each side. Showcasing this long and blooming herbaceous border.

Visiting Blarney Castle was high on my list of must see things in County Cork. I nearly skipped the gardens but I’m very glad we didn’t. The highlight of this 60 acres of gardens and arboretums was this herbaceous border. It was in full bloom when we visited in July last year. It’s a 100 metre long double herbaceous border topped with an 80 metre rose pergola. Amazingly we had this area all to ourselves. It seems the hundreds of other tourists on coach trips only had time to queue up to kiss the Blarney Stone. I suspect many of them would have preferred this garden. It is also a wonderful background for portrait photography.