Sketchcrawl around Karori and Makara

We went for a drive to the West Winds Recreation Park, near Makara, north of Wellington. I took my sketchbook with me, on the off chance that I would have time for a few sketches...

It was a bright sunny summer's day, with a beautiful blue sky. We went over the hill into Karori, which has always had its own weather, a bit like Brigadoon. The Karori was covered in a thick fog. ???? We went on anyway.

The park actually has ruins in it of quite a large base, including gun emplacements and an old radio station. It was really strange to think of New Zealand having ruins like this.   

We walked around the massive wind turbines, which was very strange. They are so big that an Airbus A380 plane could sit in this middle of the wind turbine wings, with lots of room to spare. It looked like there was 70 - 80 of them on the hills, all moving except for one, who looked like he was in charge. The day was starting to feel a bit surreal, as if we were in some kind of Dr Who scene. The wind turbines moved in and out of the thick fog.

Then we went down to Makara Cafe and Beach. Here is my 3 year old climbing over an old boat, which is sitting smack bang in the middle of the cafe. Oddly enough, this was not surreal, because this is very common in Wellington cafes.

  

We drove on back through Karori, which was now bright and sunny. Over the hill, we discovered that the rest of the world was now covered in a pea souper fog.  We drove down to Happy Valley to the coast, to Carlucci Land. I had never been here before, and got out of the car, in the fog, to be surrounded by the most fantasical animals and metal sculptures. This guy in this valley has made all these structures and sculptures from scrap metal. Now it was like being in a Salvador Dali painting (in the fog).

 

Well, we made our way home now, driving along the coast, watching the fog obscure things.

I think  that by sketching things, and observing them so closely, it made everything seem quite different. Otherwise, I probably would have just glanced at things and moved on, unaffected. But that made the day really interesting for me.

Gratuitous photo of Dunedin Harbour, South Island, New Zealand