On the fifth of January, 2024, I embarked on my travels to New Zealand. As always, I kept a log of my journey, but it is not writing that came as a result of this trip. This time it was images – paintings and drawings. The works were made on my return. It seemed as if New Zealand was just too much to take in, to visually digest, as it were – I needed to distill. I saw places and came into contact with vistas larger than I had ever experienced. I noticed small habitats that saw me hunkered down by the side of the road to observe in more detail. I stopped often and walked with my camera to try and figure out how to capture some of this country. I know the photos will never do justice to the scale of this landscape, the heat, the smells; the photos will be for me to remember and drop me back into this land.

Excerpts.

13.01.2024. Mt Hutte near Methven/Windwhistle. Early morning; the sun is out and it is warm already. Free camping is a different thing than what it is in Australia. There are some locations but the number of camper vans that can pull up is often limited. If you don’t fit, you have to go to an official camping site and pay. So, I end up paying, I am learning as I go. This campsite overlooks a large, wild and wide river, which is two tone blue in colour. I am told this is because of the glazier melt and that the sand picks up some of the glazier colour. I ventured down the steep bank and go for a swim. The water is icy cold and the pull of the current is so strong that I had to carefully stay close to the river’s edge of rounded, water worn rocks of all sizes. It was refreshing.

One translation of Aotearoa, the Maori name of New Zealand, is ‘the island of the long white cloud’. I see the long white cloud this morning and I go chasing it up a mountain. I end up at a ski resort, now obviously closed, but at this time of year used for walking trails. At the carpark I make coffee and watch the cloud disperse.

17.01.2024.Arthur’s Pass. Well, everyone should drive this, see this, experience this, at least once if they can. The changing of landscape that happens when you round a bend in the road – all of which are in excellent condition btw, makes me laugh with appreciation. The change from dense forest covered mountains to flat land where it looks like I have passed back into the Burren in Ireland. I imagine the ice age and the melting of glaziers and see the large boulders that were dropped along the melt path. There are steep peaks which have white rock/stone that, from this distance, resemble icing on a cake. Alluvial gullies with grey gravel, stone runs and sand. I pick some up to examine it when I stop and try to see what there is in it that turns the water such an exceptional colour here. The blue colours touches me deeply. There is a viaduct called ‘Death’s Corner’ or ‘Otira Viaduct’ which was opened in 1999. It is so, so impressive. This engineering feat soars above the steep gorge, the road clings to the rising mountainside, the sky is blasting blue and I try to take it all in while keeping my eyes on the road as I pass people cycling.

At the village of Arthur’s Pass I park up. I think I am a little in shock at the scale of the landscape, the diversity and beauty. I walk to the wide river bed which now only holds a dribble of water, clinking in sound over the rounded stones. There is a train bridge that crosses it and the train ride must be something to experience. Each of the historic houses have notices which tell of their past historical functions. There is a small, quiet, religious building with open doors that invites people in for a moment of reflection. I sit in this tranquil space for a little while and take in the view from the end gable window. It shows the mountain side close up. There is no religious iconography, this is a place to ‘worship’ nature.

I know I am coming to the end of the Pass when I see the start of agricultural organisation. Black Angus and Frisian cows in fields, silos and buildings, tall tree windbreaks dividing land. With the scale of everything here, I feel as if I have travelled for days, not just one. It is a glorious day. You really need eyes in the back of your head to take all this in.

I see: Italian looking trees, giant drummond land like Monaghan but larger in scale, stand-alone trees and the wildness of nature. Dragon flies a plenty, eagles and hawks, a backpacker taking a nap in the shade of a tree – his hands behind his head as he rests on his backpack.

14″H x 19.5 W. mixed media on paper.

‘Harrier Halk’ 14″H x 19.5 W. mixed media on paper.

‘Land of the long white cloud’ 14″H x 19.5 W. mixed media.

‘The water below’. 14″H x 19.5 W. mixed media.

‘New Zealand recall’. 14″H x 19.5 W. mixed media.