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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| Adam Errington's view of the motorway behind us |
Got
to love Wellington. Wellington has character in a way that try-hard
Auckland will never have. The world's southernmost capital, it's also
the world's windiest city, apparently.
Wellington is steep. Old wooden
houses and brutalist apartment blocks inhabited by government servants,
frozen students and character artists from Weta Workshops cling to the damp valley walls.
The central city is concentrated in a small area
meaning it always feels like the place is pumping. Everywhere you look people are packing out the many bars
and cafes, nonchalantly sipping freetrade, Burundi single source, cold brewed coconut lattes and chowing down on pumpkin dukkah toast with a side of eggs,
or maybe a Dosa Masala, a Nasi Lemak, or maybe a warming Phở? You might
be getting the idea by now – Wellington is incredibly eclectic and
quite likely our very own hipster capital.
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| St Peters Chapel - by Zoe |
My eldest daughter, Zoe, and I were in town to check out the Massey
Design School open day. She's thinking of going there next year so
figured we needed to check it out. We spent a full day checking out
everything the school has to offer and by the end of the day I was ready
to chuck everything in and apply myself. Student life looks like so
much more fun that it did in my day!
The following morning, once I'd snapped back to reality
and while I waited for the teenager to wake up I drew the view out the
hotel
window. This is St Johns in the city (top). The first two St Johns
burned
down making this number three dating from 1885 – the downside of wooden
buildings I guess. A great corner to sketch during daylight hours, but
not so great for sleeping at night due to a continuous procession of
'drunken munters' making their 'hilarious' way up the valley singing at
the top of their voices.
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| Dave and Andrew in action |
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| St. Peters by Dave Black (I think that's me on the left and Zoe on the right) |
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| Zoe's sketch of Adam, Dave and craft beer at sci-fi themed Photon Flux |
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| Another view of St. Peters by Andrew James – interesting to see how everyone handled the steeple. |
Next day I took on the cupolas, crowns, corbels and corinthian columns of the old Albermarle Hotel on Ghuznee Street while Zoe checked out the vintage clothing and vinyl at Slowboat Records and Rough Peel Records. An Edwardian building that started life as a temperance hotel before becoming a brothel. The eclectic facade was probably better suited to the latter.
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| Albermarle Hotel |
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| Midnight Espresso by Zoe |
We finished at Midnight Espresso on Cuba Mall. At the forefront of Wellingtons coffee culture since back in the day when the owners scored themselves a container load of Cubas finest and roasted it with a home made roaster. Packed with character and colourful characters, the lady with purple hair will serve you a superb flat-white and a stuffed kumara.
Wellington. What a great place sketch.
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