Ellerslie International Flower Show

As Nic munches on tacos behind me I thought I would do a quick post about the Ellerslie International Flower Show. Having stolen the show from Auckland (for many millions of dollars) the Christchurch City Council took a real risk in bringing the icon event south. Many have had much to say about this. During the 5 day long show the weather has been appalling with sleet and gale force winds which had as all feeling a little nervous and sad for the organisers. However, 40,000 plus had been through during the first 3 days even during the worst of the weather. I chose to go today for several reasons. I had been watching the weather closely so knew it would be good today, my friend Alex and I were both free today and finally, I thought most people would think the weekend would be busy so would go during the week....and BINGO! It totally paid off.

The 'bloke's garden'

This was pretty ugly but worth a picture

The edible garden

Akaroa garden

Wedding cake from the 'Hollywood' themed floral arrangements

' Sex in the City' inspired shoe with sushi made of flowers in the background

We could easily have spent an entire day there and got free food in the food tent and attended the 'Wearable Weeds' show but we decided that lovely though it was that we needed to spend time with our families and 3 hours was enough for us. You had to move along at a reasonable clip as there were people wanting to see stuff but it was well laid out with plenty of room, although everyone said we had picked the best day to come as it was the quietest, still seemed like heaps of people. I had also heard there were people who didn't like it. Not sure what they were expecting but it was pretty much what I thought it would be. There was a nice mixture of exhibition gardens, floral art, food, gardening retail as well as clothes, jewellery and lovely natural skin care. I will definitely go back next time. I loved it.