Vancouver Island: Butchart Gardens

After Delle and I left the Butterfly Gardens, we headed down the road to the famous Butchart Gardens. We realised at this point that we hadn't budgeted our time very well, so we only had about 2 hours to see the 55-acre gardens before heading to our dinner destination!



Before starting our exploration of the gardens, we had a quick lunch in a cafe at the entrance. There I had the most disgusting nachos ever - a plastic container of corn chips squirted with fake orange cheese (from a bottle!) and an adjacent compartment of runny salsa. Canada's orange cheese had been freaking Delle out throughout her visit, but this stuff took the cake! After this amusing diversion, we had just enough time for a quick tour of the various sections that make up the Butchart Gardens.



The earliest garden was planted just over 100 years ago, and the couple who started it all (the Butcharts) began welcoming visitors to their estate in the 1920s. The Butchart Gardens change for each of the "five seasons" - spring, summer, fall, winter and Christmas. So this is the summer offering!

The Sunken Garden (built in an old quarry)...









Totem poles...















The Rose Garden...
















The Japanese Garden...























A window in the hedge, looking out at Butchart Cove (it was impossible to capture the awesomeness of this hedge window on camera!)...







The Star Pond, Italian Garden, and enjoying some gelato...







A replica of Florence's famous pig statue... click here to see the blog post from when we saw the real one!







And that was the Butchart Gardens! They really were spectacular and well worth a visit. But here's our advice to future visitors:

1) Budget more than 2 hours. 3-4 hours would probably be ideal.
2) Don't order the nachos.

That evening we had organised to stay the night in Parksville with Mel H. Mel had organised supper on the beach with Marina (a new face for me, but Delle had met her in Oz) and Lorne and Michelle and kids (Lorne's an Aussie). Due to a combination of factors, Delle and I ended up being quite a bit late to this appointment...

The factors included: Tommy (the GPS) trying to direct us onto a ferry as part of the "fastest route" option (we were practically in the ferry queue before we realised!), having to drive south to get around Saanich Inlet (due to not taking the ferry) before we could head north to Parksville, the shocking peak hour traffic on single-lane-each-way back roads, and stop-start traffic on the motorway near Victoria.

Thankfully the others weren't too annoyed about enjoying a lovely evening at the beach while they waited for us! Here's a pic of the crew at dinner - minus Michelle and kids, who were off playing by the time I got my camera out...


L-R: Mel, Lorne, Marina, Delle.



It was a beautiful evening, and we had fun staying at Mel's that night too. The next day we set off south again to explore BC's capital, Victoria. Stay tuned!