Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Our Saturday morning mission with thanks to Antoine's excellent article on the Cycling in Auckland site, Great Rides: Mangere Bridge to Ambury Park.
We parked under the Mangere bridge on the Onehunga side, rode over the old bridge past the fishermen, around the Mangere foreshore. The pathway here is part of the Te Araroa cycleway, with a paved path off the road, this is great when cycling with 4 kids, we could keep an eye on each of them without worrying about cars too much. The pathway takes you into Ambury Park, where we stopped off to watch some sheep being shorn, something our townie kids have never seen. Then back on the bikes heading south again along the Watercare Coastal Walkway until heavy rain arrives and we head to Mangere Bridge to refuel the kids with some hot food so they make it back over the new bridge via the suspended cycle lane.
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