Being their 13th annual show my daughter said "let's go, that's my LUCKY NUMBER"
We chose to fly there at 6am and fly home at 9pm, sounded great!
April 2nd was the day of the Cyclonic winds that closed the Melbourne Garden Show and caused fatalities and widespread damage in Melbourne and Tasmania!!!
My two daughters and myself flew out of Tasmania with no problems, bit of turbulence but nothing to worry us. We witnessed a wonderful sunrise from above the clouds, and always love watching the countryside lit up with lights, very pretty indeed.
The rear exit from the plane was abandoned due to high winds , this was our first inkling of what was to come.
Had a light breakfast at Tullamarine Airport and then caught a taxi to the Show. I just sat back and soaked up all the sights as we drove along. I have been to Melbourne only once before and can't remember very much about it because it was so long ago.
The moment we walked through the gate I had my camera out. Stalls selling garden crafts lined the paths. I was inspired first off. Then I ran into Don Burke (Bourkes Backyard program) and shook his hand and had a little chat, as you do!!!!
Suddenly the stalls end and we are surrounded by the magical world of garden art in the form of 'sculptures' or artistic forms that dot the open green lawn area. My camera hardly had time to focus (blink and wink etc) between pictures, I felt I had to run between each exhibit, my daughters constantly stirred me on the amount of time I spent with the camera to my eye! I would have liked to spend a couple of days there, so instead of missing out I took HEAPS of pics so I could come home and load them up to drool in peace!
Here are a couple of my favourites.
This 'shower' sculpture is made entirely from string! an amazing piece of artwork, the artist certainly 'thought outside the square' with this one!!
This Japanese Waiting garden was a Gold Medal winner.
This more striking garden also won Gold.
We headed inside the Exhibition Building to view the floral displays and demonstrations. I wasn't disappointed again, but even though I enjoyed this area I was looking forward to more outside exhibitions for ideas to take home.
ALAS an announcement ove the loud speakers told us that the entire show has been cancelled due to extreme winds and we were to make our way to the exits immediately!!!! Everyone from outside had ventured indoors at this stage so getting out of this building was a very long process. It took even longer to get a refund for our ticket.
We took our refund and headed to Melbourne Central to have a nice lunch at the Groove Train, the meal was top notch, the bottle of wine went down well and the atmosphere was warm, relaxing and well remembered. Unlike the atmosphere outside!
Melbourne was experiencing Cyclonic strength winds, with one fatality already by the time we left to try and get to the airport. We lined up for a taxi at Flinders Street Station, ha ha not a chance....we got drenched and traffic was at a standstill. We power walked to Southern Cross Station and were very lucky to walk straight on to the Sky bus to the airport.
High drama being averted, we arrived in time to do a little window shopping. But forgetting to check the time at the last minute we had to make a dash to the boarding gate, all out of breath and relieved that we had checked in this morning on the way over to save time, they informed us that the boarding gate had been changed (due to the wind) and we had to run to the other end of the airport to get our plane.
We thoroughly deserved our bottles of sparkling wine and cheese and crackers!!!! It was a little turbulent getting up above the wind storm! Comming down into Tasmania was the same.
Next day I checked the yard out and thought something was a little amiss, the 'cyclone' wire fence had nearly fallen over onto my car and the wood paling fence on the other side of the house had come adrift.
The 'girls' (chooks) were perfectly ok and no other damage was to be found, thank goodness.
When we heard all the stories about Melbourne and Tasmania I think we were very lucky to have even got half way around the garden show. But it was all worth it, I would do it again tomorrow!
Thank God (!) we didn't need this facility, my daughter lookes pleased to have found the sign. 
