23 October 2009

The Wintergarden

The Auckland Domain’s Wintergarden hothouses, located a few hundred metres from the War Memorial Museum, have been a fixture of the city’s botanical attractions for nearly 90 years.  Opened on 12 October 1921 ‘for the benefit and pleasure of the public’, the project was paid for using the surplus funds of the remarkably successful Auckland Exhibition of 1913-14.   A pair of glass hothouses is linked by an outdoor promenade featuring a stylish rectangular lily pond fed by bubbling fountains and fringed by classically-styled statues.  Previously the Wintergarden had languished in a state of disrepair, but since a recent refurbishment it’s regained its rightful place as a much-valued small oasis of calm in the middle of Auckland. 

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