The Bicentennial Conservatory

The Adelaide Botanic Gardens certainly holds it's own. This post isn't about the garden as a whole though, but rather about a rather impressive building and collection inside it - the Bicentennial Conservatory.

The conservatory is one of the largest in the world, and certainly the largest single span conservatory in the Southern Hemisphere, and was built in 1989 to celebrate the nation's bi-centenary.

The architecture aside, what's inside (once you've paid 5 bucks to get in), is a collection of tropical rainforest plants from the North of Australia and the islands of South East Asia.

Eastwoodhill Arboretum

A convinient six hour drive away from Hamilton lies the national arboretum at Eastwoodhill, just out of Gisborne. This is the most perfect time of year to visit, with autumn colours in full swing.

You can easily spend all day in the massive grounds (135ha even), and it's worth spending all that time too - I only saw the half of it. This arboretum happens to be the largest, and most comprehensive in the Southern Hemisphere.

Here are a few photos I took today:

Eastwoodhill Arboretum - April 2011

The Torrens River Promenade

Sadly, when travelling for business, I often don't have as much time to enjoy the cities that I visit as I'd like. In fact, usually it's just evenings and weekends, and at this time of year, it's dark in the evenings...
In any case, I do get the occasional snippet of time to enjoy the sunshine, and on wednesday, I used that to wander along the Torrens River that runs through Adelaide.

I like the Torrens river - it's a nice wide river, not a tributary (like the Yarra), and runs at a nice relaxed pace (unlike the Waikato).

You can walk along it for miles - however, being rather tired I only visited the area in behind the Intercontinental Hotel and Casino.

This area may well look quite different next time I visit, with Sky City (Adelaide Casino), having massive proposals for gentrification. That ought to be a good thing, as the area between North Terrace and the river is a bit of a hodge-podge.

Here are a few pics:

Torrens River, Adelaide - March 2011

Torrens River precinct with Intercontinental Hotel, Adelaide - March 2011

Torrens River Prominade, Adelaide - March 2011

Torrens River, Adelaide - March 2011