Why sketch?

posted by Murray Dewhurst on
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...
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If someone said jump off the harbour bridge, would you do it?

posted by Murray Dewhurst on
Excited and just a little terrified?
That old saying 'If someone said jump off the harbour bridge, would you do it?' was echoing in my mind recently when some friends asked me to join them on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Dhani had been married the day before and the idea was to surprise him with a compulsory bungy jump.

The walk is a lot of fun, you see the workings of the bridge up close, and eventually climb up to a specially designed pod attached under the highest part of the bridge. The pod is constructed of tubular pipes and stretched aluminium panels so looks more like the fuselage of a Catalina flying boat than some adrenalin junkies jump off point.

Once on board you're surrounded by bungy cords, carabiners, ropes, tv monitors, emergency paraphernalia, spotlights, speakers, a sub woofer while cameras catch you at your most vulnerable. All that's left is a couple of gung-ho adventure operators with faux tribal tattoos. A switch is then flicked and the whole side of the place opens out so jumpers can see first hand what terrifying heights they're about to jump from. On the day Dhani was more than happy to make the jump, grinning ear to ear and diving off head first to take out top points for style.

I was just happy to tag along with the sketchbook and see if I could get it all down on paper. The views are amazing of course, with Birkenhead, the Birkenhead ferry visible through the steel structure, and luckily I had just enough time to sketch him on his way out the door...

Out you go Dhani!

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