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...
A few sketches from the weekend's ride. All sketched quickly in pencil and coloured later — the kids cycling legs have got stronger, so if I sketch for too long, I get left behind!
The trail starts (or ends) in Opua in the Bay of Islands and ends at Horeke on the upper reaches of the Hokianga Harbour. Easily broken into two 45-ish kilometer days with lots of variation in scenery from native bush, farmland, estuary and even the back of the Moerewa AFFCO freezing works.
Turns out spring is a great time to do the trail. The temperature is warmer, and we were lucky to get very little rain, and of course being spring the wildlife is busy with plenty of calves, lambs, turkeys, piglets, paradise geese and ducklings, chooks with chicks, a few malnourished looking puppies and a couple of cute kittens at the Mangunu Mission — plenty to keep the kids occupied when not cranking through the k's.
We thought we were being clever planning to finish the second and last day at Horeke. Horeke has NZ's oldest pub, and we had plans to relax and celebrate finishing the ride with a few laid back Lion Reds. Classic though eh, the pub at the end was shut!
The trail starts (or ends) in Opua in the Bay of Islands and ends at Horeke on the upper reaches of the Hokianga Harbour. Easily broken into two 45-ish kilometer days with lots of variation in scenery from native bush, farmland, estuary and even the back of the Moerewa AFFCO freezing works.
Turns out spring is a great time to do the trail. The temperature is warmer, and we were lucky to get very little rain, and of course being spring the wildlife is busy with plenty of calves, lambs, turkeys, piglets, paradise geese and ducklings, chooks with chicks, a few malnourished looking puppies and a couple of cute kittens at the Mangunu Mission — plenty to keep the kids occupied when not cranking through the k's.
We thought we were being clever planning to finish the second and last day at Horeke. Horeke has NZ's oldest pub, and we had plans to relax and celebrate finishing the ride with a few laid back Lion Reds. Classic though eh, the pub at the end was shut!
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