Back to Butchart's

A break among the flowers

My mother loved to garden, and years ago when she visited Butchart Gardens outside Victoria, BC, she could not stop raving about it, so when we finally made it to the west coast we visited, pushing a young daughter around the pathways in a stroller. We enjoyed it enough that we returned on another visit to Vancouver Island, and with a morning to spare before catching a ferry to the mainland, we went back again this year. As usual the fabulous plant and flower displays continue to impress.

The Butchart Boar!

The original Mr. Butchart produced Portland cement, and needed limestone for the process. Outside Victoria, he operated a large limestone quarry, and when it was exhausted his wife decided to turn the ugly hole in the ground into a garden. Over the years it grew until it was not only the quarry, but the surrounding properties and is now a popular tourist attraction pulling in millions of visitors every year.

The Butchart’s original house and property are now surrounded by beautiful gardens, and

Even the garbage cans have plants

you can spend hours wandering through the various styles of gardens. There is the original quarry which has a beautiful fountain in one end, a Japanese garden, a rose garden, an Italian garden a Mediterranean garden and even a bog garden.

We have been here at various times through the year, and the gardens are always beautiful. The beds are constantly maintained by an army of gardeners; producing near

The Original Quarry garden

perfect displays all the time. As we wandered among the flowers I noticed one corner that did not look that good, but returning a few minutes later, the offending non-perfect plants had been dug out and replaced.

My mother was right, the gardens are beautiful, and if you are visiting the Victoria area, a side trip to this attraction should be on your to-do list. But, really these pictures do a better job of describing Butchart than the writing. 

Living on the Water

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Party Boat

One thing we have discovered since we started traveling is that we like being on the water. In Spain we were half a block from the Mediterranean, in Portugal we were in a fishing town, Budapest had us overlooking the Danube, Chester was on the River Dee, and living on a narrowboat for two weeks in England was a favorite vacation adventure. In Italy we were landlocked, and to be honest we missed the water.

Living on the Water

Now here we are off on a 43 day cruise across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand, and will be on the ocean for weeks and weeks. What better way to start this adventure than a water taxi to Fisherman’s Wharf to see the floating homes there, and see how people actually “Live” on the water here in Victoria.

Watch out for float planes!

The weather forecast for Victoria was calling for rain, so we did not expect much, but although we woke to a downpour, the sun came out and we had a pleasant day. We walked down to the inner harbor across from the famous Empress Hotel, and caught a cute little water taxi out to Fisherman’s Wharf. Now there were a few fishing boats down at one end of the wharves but this is mostly a tourist attraction now, with floating homes, restaurants, and souvenir shops outnumbering the actual fishing boats.

Water Taxi

The water taxis are cute little boats that actually look too top-heavy to be seaworthy, but they scoot around Victoria’s harbor ferrying folks wherever they wish to go. In fact they even do a special Water Taxi Ballet in the summer. Check it out on youtube . . . Our taxi got us safely to Fisherman’s wharf, dodging float planes, ferries to Seattle, and various other Victoria Harbor watercraft, depositing us at the wharf, with a cheerful “See you on the way back”.

A house on a boat

Regis is a big fan of the many HGTV “Home Improvement”, shows including the “My Floating Home” series where they build houses that are moored in harbors, canals or rivers. Here at Fisherman’s Wharf we actually got to see some of these floating houses. It was interesting to wander down the wharf and see these unique homes. There was everything from a little Hobbit house to a converted boat with a huge party patio on the roof.

Our return water taxi pilot told us that one recently sold for around $250,000.00 and the monthly mooring fee is $800.00, so I do not think I am buying one any time soon.