My way of celebrating part of Matariki this year was to coast around the neighbourhood on my bike until I found something interesting to sketch. The perfect way to spend a public holiday I reckon. For some reason this pretty typical Grey Lynn street caught the eye but I soon realised it felt restricted on the page – so I tore another page out of the sketchbook (I never do that!) and tacked it on the side. Maybe I'll do more of these. The result gives a much better idea of what the streets around here look like...
For cyclists in Auckland it's hard to ignore the Coromandel as an easy to access bikepacking destination. I've cycled around the peninsular a number of times now, but despite that it's still an enticing enough winderness escape to lure half a dozen two-wheeled 'Jafas'. Of course that also means some hastily painted sketches had to be created on the spot in a tiny sketchbook. It goes without saying right? This time around I went for a stealth set-up of a gouache travel kit, a tiny kraft paper sketchbook and a waterbrush. The Ritchies bike bags were rammed with camping gear and food for 3 days so the last thing you want is miles of art materials as well. I took a fineliner along just in case but to be honest I really like the look of the blunt waterbrush in a small sketchbook.  |
| A strangely large orange tent at Fletchers Bay (?!) |
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| The view of Port Jackson from the top of the saddle. It's one of the best views ever – partly because your brain is so starved of oxygen from the heinous hill climb |
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| Duncan and Marcus at the top of that saddle find some humour to forget the pain of that climb. |
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| The track up out of Fletchers Bay (a steep track so cyclist is visible to left pushing) |
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| Evening camp set up in Waikauwau Bay. |
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| Antoine riding the ridgeline on the Stony Bay track – before we encountered the slips. |
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| Tom's classic Orange P7 26" |
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| Duncan's Surly Midnight Special |
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| A terrible sketch on top of the Kennedy Bay hill with pou whenua (it was super windy and cold) |
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Josca's 1980's Trail Breaker 26"
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