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...
The Occidental is one of Auckland's oldest pubs*.
Built around 1870 on the corner of Vulcan Lane and Auckland's famous Queen Street, back when the stream Waihorotiu was only partly covered, and drains ran down each side of Queen Street.
At some stage an art deco building was built in front of the pub obscuring part of it's curving facade which only makes it look more unique today.
From what I can find the pub was built by an American sailor and modelled on his previous establishment, also called Occidental Hotel in San Francisco. Like the American original, this pub also housed a museum of '...absorbing interesting specimens of the pictorial art, defunct wonders and comical conceits'. Sounds interesting!
According to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust the '...establishment was very popular with merchants, traders, speculators, artists, litterateurs, sportsmen and even 'the loafer''.
I frequented it in the late 80's when it was a hangout for students and punks (and punk students obviously). Today you're likely to join business people and tourists at the bar for one of the many Belgian beers on offer.
*Hey, New Zealand is a young country!
Comments