23 March 2018 Friday.
We were a little late this morning. With pretty heavy traffic along the way, we arrived at Innes Common just before 0800 hrs. The participating balloon had flown off.
We took opportunity to walk through balloon.
We need to make a gold coin donation to walk thru balloon envelope. And we had to walk through with a candy….
Entering the balloon…
Looking back at the entrance…
Lovely experience… to stroll inside the balloon…
Our pictures inside the balloon.
At the other end of the balloon…
At the exit of the balloon envelope.
After the walk through balloon experience, we headed back to Villa at Grey Street. My wife happily preparing our breakfast, while I loaded up portion of our luggage.
Breakfast time…
simple and superb stuff.
After breakfast, it was Botanical Garden II, exploring what we had missed the day before.
Stopping over outside the main building…
Varieties of Fern…
Zoomed in…
Freshly rolled out fern…
Look more like translucent jade…
Entering Garden Piazza…
Our pictures at the Piazza
Lovely little fountain dance…
From Piazza, we headed for Japanese Garden…
With traditional Japanese Landscapping
A reflective corner…
Our Pictures in the Japanese Garden
Moving On…
Traditional Chinese architecture….
With a Centralised pond…
Impressive reflections…
Exit and entry to bamboo forest…
Bamboo pathway…
Stone throw from the bamboo pathway…
Open garden …
Lined with varieties of flowers…. clustered and single flowers…
from bud to flower….
From England to American….
The theme is modern display…. glass reflection
pool and Marilyn Monroe…
and possibly some colors of the wind….
Garden from another ancient civilisation…
A mixed watery path, massive flowerbeds and traditional Indian architecture.
pretty strong scents – must be attractive to bees…
Our pictures…
Departing….
on our way to the Botanical garden exit….by passing the same Italian garden
relaxing family outing….
Our pictures …
Botanical Garden Exit
Quiet Ponds gave it a cool feel
Close up on the Green….
and these are the future development the next time we are here…
A last picture before driving off….
Setting off in our little car to New Plymouth.
Quiet Road rolls out in front of us…
nice hilly terrain towered on either side of the road.
We had a stopover, heading onto a the side track.
A cattle farm on one side…
Curious animals…
And on the other side of the track…
Continue with more greenery… (reminded me of the beautiful greenery when driving on Southland)
Stretched of grassland as far as we can see.
Stopover beside this little stream…. flowing quietly besides the highway…
peaceful and relaxing sight…. This is absolutely beautiful country.
Yes…. an Orchard by the highway.
Raspberries and Blueberries on sale…
Our purchases.
My wife walked away with the tempting ice-scream.
Driver had the last taste…
Shortly after leaving Piopio Berry Orchard, it began to pour heavily. The drive gets a little more difficult. It was almost 1800 hrs when we arrived New Plymouth Countryside Studio.
Very well furnished…with an upper deck.
So we thought these were framed up pictures…
Lovely countryside green everywhere.
while waiting for rain to subside….
So delicious…
1900 hrs…. we drove off to Social Kitchen for dinner.
Full house…
The waiter asked if we mind have dinner at their courtyard…
Seated…
Our sumptuous dinner
Cheers… after a long day of driving. Cheers to the juicy ribs….
After dinner, we drove to the seaside… catching the last glimpse of sunlight.
Just before darkness.
End of Day 14 :
We were a little too late and we miss the balloons taking off. We had another flowery morning at Hamilton Botanical Garden and a very scenic drive to New Plymouth. The Countryside Studio is simply lovely place to stay and we had a very good dinner at Social Kitchen.
Back to NZ North Island Day 13
Continue to : NZ North Island Day 15.
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