Winter at the Winter Garden

When I first came to Auckland back in 1976 I used to  flat in a magnificent old two story house not far from the domain. It is worth over $3,000,000 now and we used to rent half of it for $55 a week which was exorbitant compared to the $33 I had been paying for an entire workman's cottage in central in Wellington ! It had a particularly memorable very large lead light window in the downstairs landing featuring a British bull dog.

I used to visit the Winter Garden regularly and from time to time have long conversations with the gardeners. I've gone back every year since, sometimes with visitors and sometimes as a nostalgia trip as we would often have flat picnics in the domain.

Accessed off the paved area between the two buildings is a sunken fernery which is always nice and cool in summer.

There is a cafe next door, from which you can also get ice cream, by all accounts a very pleasant spot right in the heart of Auckland.

It is also just a five minute walk to the War Memorial Museum and next to the Auckland Domain.

Link to Wikipedia article on Winter Garden

Anyway to cut a long story short I was up there the other day, it being a grey and gloomy one at that.

Canon 5DMkII