tulip fever

Along with thousands of fellow gawpers, a friend and I took a picnic to Araluen Botanic Park where at this time of year there are mass plantings of tulips of every shape, colour and size.
On a spectacular day ( it got to 29C) we got there early to get reasonable parking and by the time we left families were still struggling in laden with chairs, eskies and muttering kids from bush parks requiring a packed lunch and bottled water to just reach the entrance!

Araluen, named from an eastern states aboriginal word meaning 'singing waters' or 'place of the lilies', was established as a 60 hectare holiday camp for the Young Australian League in 1929, volunteers and members creating the paths, roads, terraces and steps that still exist today.
In recent years the park has been further developed and restored and the tulips mass planted.
Just a beautiful place to spend time with walks and pathways through native bush, tree fern edged streams and cascades, shaded benches and picnic pockets.

The gathered masses were a pot pouri of nations, cultures and faiths and these must be amongst the most photographed tulips on the continent judging by the posing and peeping faces grinning out from the flowers and foliage.