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...
Anyone out there stayed at the Brown Kiwi?
I’ve walked past the Brown Kiwi backpackers hundreds of times over the years to and from work. Usually bustling with excited travellers arriving, leaving, setting up their vans etc for their Kiwi adventures.
It always cheered me up to know others were having a blast while I was grovelling away at work. Sadly, with no backpackers in the country for 2 years thanks to Covid it has closed, looks vacant and bleak. So bleak I’ve added the some signage and light in the windows just to cheer it up a bit!
NZ has opened again to travellers so who knows, maybe it's days as a gateway to young travellers will return.
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