Well after all the shouting, crying and whining was over (by city councillors mostly) the Ellerslie Flower Show arrived for its inaugural splash in the city of Christchurch (please somebody remove Ellerslie from the name! I don’t want to think I’ve somehow been portalled to Auckland!). Ok so I made up the word portalled but I like it and if you don’t then tell that Richard Dean Anderson and the Stargate crew!
We took time out from our respective jobs to attend on the Friday, hoping to avoid the big weekend crowds but possibly our logic was flawed since it’s mostly old people who attend these things and Friday is no different from Sunday for them, except possibly they may be singing hymns and not bedding down Pansies. Anyhoo, we arrived about 9.40am (gates open 10am) and easily found a park at the botanic gardens. We joined the huuuge queue to get in (little did we know this was just the warm-up event), got in and headed straight for the Wearable Weeds tent to get in for the 11am show. Queued patiently for about 10 minutes while simultaneously formatting somebody’s digital camera (just one of my many services) only to find out we didn’t have a show of getting in to the show – it was all booked out already. Stinkaroo! As it turns out we would have to queue for at least three days if we wanted to get in to that show – we caught a glimpse of the 3pm show as were leaving – through the security fence, several people and the back door, suffice to say not the best seat in the house.
So the day progressed, queues, queues and more queues with all patrons pleasantly putting up with this silly waiting around business – can’t the organisers just ‘organise’ the show a little better so we don’t have to queue? The ‘food’ tent was a highlight as we all rifled through plied with tasty treats at every corner and kept in line by the odd queue nazi. My fav was definitely the Lindauer chocolates – super yum, the free coffee, hot bagels, tasty salads, mini lamingtons, salami, cheese, smoothies … I could go on but I’m getting hungry thinking about it.
I took plenty of photos and my camera battery just hung in there (yay) and I have to say my top pic of the day would have to be my sneaky shots of the future garden with the big mirror ball (I’m pretty sure that was not it’s name) … I have more photos of the Ellerslie Flower Show on my Picasa album.
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Overall it was a really fun day and I enjoyed it more than I imagined I would (note to self, keep expectations low, it always helps). Not an overly keen gardener myself I wondered how I would stay focused but the variety of tents, sideshows, buskers, queue watching and the odd pansy kept my interest. The weather even came to the party with some welcome sunshine during the day. The garden displays themselves were for the most part pretty ordinary I thought but it did inspire me to mow the lawns when I got home. There’s hope for me yet.
ps Thank you to the lovely staff at the Coffee L’Affare stand for supplying me with chocolate coffee beans and scrummy organic coffee. I love your artwork too – it is sooooooooo super trendsetting, I desperately want it in every room of my house!
Maybe it should be renamed “The futuristic and free-food show???”