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...
This weekend a new cycle path opened that completes the north western motorway cycle lane, helping cycle commuters to avoid K-Road, Symonds Street or Queen Street completely - a real bonus (unless you enjoy cycling amongst 4 slow moving congested lanes consisting mainly of buses).
The cycle lane is entered from the motorway overbridge on Upper Queen Street. From there it's a very smooth and fast run downhill (sadly not so fast uphill) beside the motorway offramp, under Grafton Bridge and Wellesley Street, eventually depositing you on to Beach Road where a cycle lane has been added beside the citybound traffic lane.
While I was drawing, a bloke stopped by and pointed out where he recalled all the houses were before they were cleared for the motorway. A friend mentioned his grandmother used to pick fruit in an orchard in this gully too. Back in those days the Symonds Street cemetery extended down into the gully as well. It must have been quite a different place!
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