Wintergardens at Auckland Domain

About

The Wintergardens are two Edwardian glasshouses in the Domain, one temperate and one tropical, with a sunken courtyard and lily pond between them. The tropical house is warm and humid and full of things that have no business growing in Auckland. The temperate house changes with the seasons, replanted through the year so it never looks quite the same twice. Behind them is a fernery built into an old quarry, cool and dark and worth the extra few minutes most people don't give it. The whole thing is compact and takes half an hour unless you're a gardener, in which case allow longer. It's free. It also happens to be one of the better places in the city to be when it's raining, since you're under glass and the light through it is lovely in bad weather.