Occasionally Auckland Sketchbook escapes the city to somewhere interesting — and close. This time the sketchbook got a workout in The Bay of Islands . Only 3.5 hours by car and a world away from work. The sketch above was made in down-town Paihia, it doesn't look it, but it is literally behind the main street. The view is the back of an old homestead called Williams House . I was attracted by the orchard of very old fig trees on the left that had me imagining eating juicy ripe figs. Sadly they weren't in season but it must be a fun place at harvest time. Right over the other side of the bay you will find his falling down old house on Matauwhi Bay. For a while there the water had a turquoise glow until the sun went into hiding. This is Pompallier House and Clendon Cottage in Russell sketched with my back to the sea. I may have used a little too much artistic licence in moving them close enough together to fit on my page so don't look too closely. Anyway, I have sketched Po...
This is Scott Donaldson's kayak, the kayak that almost made it from Coffs Harbour, Australia to Taranaki, New Zealand last month.
For some reason it was sitting out on the footpath, in downtown Auckland this morning, so I figured I better draw it before it disappears. Well 15 minutes into my sketch, Scott himself wanders up and starts hooking to the back of a ute to take away.
Some quick sketching ensued including a poor attempt at a portrait before he drives off on his way to Avondale for a school visit. The kayak looks tiny, a lot like a regular surf ski but with a bubble on top with a hatch. You would have to be pretty keen to kayak 2,000+ kms across the Tasman in one of these. Sounds like he almost stopped at the beginning with a few false starts with gear breakages and backtracking to Coffs Harbour. At some stage the rudder broke, then, when very close to New Zealand a storm blew him back towards Australia! After 6 days battling the storm with no rudder he was choppered off, leaving the kayak behind. Last week it washed up onto a beach in Taranaki covered in barnacles.
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