Queen's Park Tour

Hello there from sunny & hot Invercargill! I've decided to give you a pictorial tour of Queens Park as I can't stop long because we have things to do, places to go. The last 3 days have been beautifully hot with cloudless blue skies; well for most of the day anyway. Apologies if the load time is slow but.... well....you know me by now, photos tell a far better story than I can (& remember, you can click on any to enlarge)

We went with the family, the kids & dad on their bikes, us walking. It took us over 3 hours to do a circuit with a stop for lunch & we still didn't see everything. This park is amazing, something you'd expect to see in one of our bigger cities not small city Invercargill. It is a wonderful asset for everyone to enjoy.

The grand entrance to Queens Park-

A wide avenue of trees leads down to the band rotunda, it's here that all manner of concerts are held including the "Carols by Candlelight" which sadly we missed because it was cancelled this year due to rain.

There are many ponds, streams & water features...

... great expanses of beautifully manicured lawns with huge log carvings & sculptures, many of them carved into seats..... 

..... wide plantings of perennial beds & border gardens.....

.....just starting to flower...

Many duck ponds & a large walk in double aviary along with smaller ones containing many NZ native birds along with a number of parrots & finches from Australia. We stopped for lunch here on the edge of the pond.

What do you do when you have fallen trees & branches in a such a large park of over 80 hectares & with so many mature trees? You create a Stumpery of course! This isn't just stump & branches dumped in a pile, these are works of art held together with steel wire & bolts.

And a Stumpery is......

Next stop was the humid Winter Garden with some stunning displays of flowers. It was a surprise to see many plants that grow outdoors in Tauranga.

This was just one tunnel, there were a further two, each branching off from the huge fish pond in the centre of the pavilion.

On through the animal park, with deer, pigs, sheep, wallabys, rabbits etc & this laid back goat watching the world walk by...

And then onto the most important park feature of all according to Ollie & Ruby, the childrens playground...

....where we lazed in the sun with an icecream while the kids played.....then one further burst of energy from the kids at the castle just a little further on....

Back past the band rotunda.....

...with Poppa getting weary & striding out for home....

...while Nana lingered at the rose gardens......

....soaking up the heady perfume of a million blooms

I hope you have enjoyed your tour as much as we enjoyed our outing, if you are ever in Invercargill, Queens Park is not to be missed.