A beautiful
place, well worth visiting, lies at the heart of Whanganui city. It is the Virginia Lake Reserve, 18 hectares
(45 acres) of lake, bush, gardens, walkways, sculptures and other pleasant
Sunday-afternoon diversions.
Virginia
Lake itself was originally known as Rotokawau, which refers to the native black
shag that still visits here to feed (I believe it also breeds here).
Maori
believed the lake had been formed by the tears of angry gods and of the
beautiful woman named Tainui, after her lover was strangled by a jealous
suitor.
The
Higginbottom Fountain is a floating copper and steel waterlily, and has been a
feature here for the last fifty years. It
can be activated for 10 minutes by inserting a $1 coin into the machine (on
shore, so you don’t have to wade out there!).
The Lake is
home to numerous birds, especially ducks, geese, coots, and pukeko. Their droppings were a bit of a problem
though, and one had sometimes to be very careful where one placed one’s feet!
I enjoyed
seeing the swans, both white and black, and was intrigued to see how the white
swans treated the smaller black ones – they were quite bossy, and the black
ones did their best to stay well out of the way.
Different
sculptures and art works are scattered around the place, and this pleasant seat
was sited near the Winter Gardens for those who just wanted to sit and
contemplate for a while.
The indoor Winter
Gardens were full of bold displays of vibrant colour.
Tucked into
various corners there were different pieces of art work to be discovered.
There were
also peaceful corners to be found in the Winter Gardens, which helped relieve
the eye of all the bright colours.
And
occasionally a lurking danger could be found to scare unwary children.
After dark, Higginbottom Fountain is illuminated by fifteen jets of amber, blue, green and red,
giving an ever-changing display which lasts for forty minutes.
Our return
visit to see the lights made for a very pretty way to end our day.
I hope you
have enjoyed this wander around some of Virginia Lake Reserve. It really is a beautiful place to visit.
Margaret 😊
NEWSFLASH (30 Oct 2020): Whanganui has been awarded the title Most Beautiful Small City in New Zealand (Hamilton is the most beautiful large city!) in the Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards 2020. Congratulations Whanganui and Hamilton!