KEY POINTS:
For a man who made a fortune manufacturing Portland cement, Robert Butchart sure left a legacy in the quarry floor that yielded limestone and clay for the plant.
More than 100 years later, that quarry is the site of the sunken garden, a showpiece for the Butchart Gardens, without question one of the most spectacular gardens in the world.
As our group rounds the curve to a lookout revealing thousands of bulbs in bloom below, howls of "wow' ring out. That's normal, says guide Graham Bell.
Wow doesn't come close to describe the 22ha with hundreds of thousands of plants, and theme gardens that change with the season.
It's spring, so the tulips, daffodils, azaleas and rhododendrons radiate a soft sea of colour.
Follow the path and you discover the Ross Fountain putting on a water display sideways and upwards of 21m from an intricate system of nozzles.
Keep walking and you will find the new bog garden, the rose garden, Italian, Mediterranean and Japanese gardens - with not a weed in sight.
Of the themed gardens, I was most taken with the Japanese garden, started by Jennie Butchart in 1906 with the expert assistance of a Japanese landscaper.
Here, delicate flowers, trees and peaceful rock pools are set against the tall timber of Canadian firs and spruces with a view over the waters of Butchart Cove. Magic.
The gardens include a concert lawn and a viewing area for fireworks during July and August on Saturday evenings. Light displays occur during December and January.
The gardens, still owned and operated by the Butchart family, employ up to 62 gardeners.
More than 1 million visitors a year pay $23 for an adult, less for children, for the experience - a 20-minute drive or coach ride from Victoria.
There's a saying, 'Victoria is for newly weds or nearly deads', a cruel tag for the state capital of British Columbia.
The city is about the same size as Wellington - 350,000 and, understandably, a political town. It offers a slower pace of life than Vancouver with a large collection of Victorian buildings and odd-shaped manicured trees down aptly named Government St.
Overlooking the inner harbour are the impressive Victorian Parliament Buildings, but nothing like the ivy-covered Fairmont Empress Hotel with its Bengal Lounge and traditional afternoon teas.
The nearby Royal Museum of British Columbia is well worth a visit. Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition was on during our stay.
It you are into history, try one of John Adams' walking tours. Walk through narrow Fan Tan and Dragon Alleys in the country's oldest Chinatown and discover why Victoria is the most haunted place in British Columbia.
The most exciting way to travel to Victoria is by sea plane from Vancouver.
The 35-minute flight crosses the Strait of Georgia and passes over a series of gulf islands before circling around and touching down at Victoria's inner harbour.
If the $127 one-way flight is too pricey, there is a 90-minute ferry service costing $37.
*Bernard Orsman travelled to Vancouver Island with Air New Zealand.
See www.butchartgardens.com
