Illustrated Epistle Extract: Coal, Cats and Nudie Calendars on the NZ West Coast

Hey, I'm back!

Not that I really went away this summer, keeping it pretty local in Lyttelton, gardening, surfing with my sister (who has moved here to Christchurch, woop, woop!) and hanging out with her and our other sister and family over the Christmas break. Our only real trips this year have been exploring the rugged West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.

The West Coast is famous for the wild coastline of the Tasman Sea, which stretches for 2,500 miles between New Zealand and Australia, with nothing in between. It's also known for its not-so-tropical rainforest, sandflies, and unpredictable weather. What's less advertised, however, is its attachment to the past. Coal mining remains a major industry, and many homes burn the dirty stuff all year round. Despite being surrounded by breathtaking wilderness, people let their cats roam free to prey on native birds. And though we love local pubs that are rough around the edges, it’s confronting to encounter nudie calendars from two years ago proudly displayed behind the bar.

It's like stepping back in time, but not always in a good way.

So the best of the West Coast is the nature and getting into it. We went to a fantastic, dog-friendly (most of the Coast isn't) campground, called Gentle Annie's, for a few days. It's north of Granity (most famous here for the houses which are being lost to the sea) and smack dab on the beach, next to a beautiful river which Molly and I paddled up without being bitten by too many sandflies. Stunning.

Molly the Jack Russell stands on the front of a stand up paddleboard ready to go

Molly the Jack Russell loves paddle boarding even more than I do

Then the boyf was groundcrew as I pedalled the West Coast Wilderness bike trail from Greymouth to Ross, a total of about 150 km (just under 100 miles in old money) and almost all off-road. The second day was mostly uphill, over 50 km and it didn't stop raining, but I loved it.

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More about the NZ West Coast Wilderness bike trail in the next post.

This is an extract of  my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at my cartooning life. I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

Or head to the archive to read more here.

Illustrated Epistle Extract: Power Cuts and Solar Panels

I will keep this epistle short as I’m catching up after a long weekend away to celebrate my birthday (53rd). We went to Le Bons Beach (I learned that the name comes from the original Bones Beach, and not from the French settlers who were around the place, as there were a lot of bones found on the beach, in common with many peninsula settlements). It's an hour and a half’s drive from here, unless you're in a 1975 Land Rover…

It was on the cool side and we had a lot of rain, but it was brilliant to go in the sea every day (as did Molly. The boyf was not keen) and I had a couple of good surfs. I also took lots of books (reading the wonderful Paper Palace at the moment). Fortunately, I also took audiobooks and my battery-powered speaker so that we were able to listen to podcasts when the power went out. I enjoyed being without power for most of Saturday, as we had the long days and a log burner to take the edge off and it meant neither of us would be tempted to try the DVD player (there was no phone reception, no TV, no wi-fi). But I really feel for people in Europe who are going into winter as energy bills skyrocket because of bloody Putin.

Our energy bill last month was just under $4, total. I'm hoping that in the summer months the power company will be paying us for the solar power we are feeding into the grid. We’ll never make our money back, but it does make me feel good contributing to grid power at a time when New Zealand often struggles…

This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at my cartooning life. I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

Or head to the archive to read more here.

Illustrated Epistle Extract: Bursting Out of my Bubble

A lovely neighbour of ours sent me a link to a documentary about conspiracy theorists in New Zealand. It explores how social media has exacerbated our differences and stoked hatred, the worst of which spilled over into real-world violence outside Parliament earlier this year. She found it so disturbing that she could only watch eight minutes of it (mind you, she doesn't watch the news for the same reason). But she thought more people should know about it and asked me to share it as she doesn’t use Facebook.

I don’t blame her. I use social media less and less. It upsets me how it has displaced real, curated content online. Facebook and co want posts that engage (facts don’t matter), and the algorithms reward arguments and hatred. Social media isn’t building community anymore. It is dividing it. We preach to the converted in our bubbles and attack anyone who doesn’t agree, driving them off to their bubbles, or off the platform entirely. It happened to neighbours who didn’t want to be vaccinated. They left Lyttelton's Facebook group: end of conversation.

How do we break out of our bubbles and prevent social media destroying our online and off-line communities?

I was given that opportunity last Friday when I went to see my physio (for reasons of age catching up with too much time sitting at a computer/drawing table). At the end of the session, she often leaves me with pins sticking in my neck and shoulders as she starts up her next patient. A couple of curtains separate us.

One of my very early cartoons!

The patients are usually Lyttelton locals like me, who have similar views about the world. Often the chat is about the aches and pains, but sometimes it becomes more interesting. Nearly always those fellow patients are in my bubble—left-leaning, environmentally concerned...you know the type—rational and decent people (so we think). But this time, the patient on the other side of the curtains was from a very different bubble and the conversation became very interesting…

This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

Or head to the archive to read it here.

Illustrated Epistle Extract: We Got Covid

Well, it was almost inevitable: finally we got Covid. I probably caught it from going to bridge lessons, as fewer and fewer people are wearing masks (our Lyttleton table have been insisting anyone who plays with us wear a mask, but we are in the minority).

It was like a heavy cold with extra aches for a day and a half. Even my eyeballs ached. How is that possible? One of my neighbours called to say that she had made muffins with a special ingredient. I was hoping it was marijuana (not legal in New Zealand, unfortunately), but it was chocolate. Nearly as good. And it was the first of many deliveries we received during our isolation.

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I did a lot of lounging around in bed, especially after a sleepless night. I couldn't concentrate to read so I listened to Lisa Tarbuck on BBC Radio ). Her show is so entertaining I had to switch to Joni Mitchell to finally drift back to sleep.

The boyf got it two days after I did and my sister in Auckland got it two days after him. New Zealand is surging.

This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

Or head to the archive to read more here.

Illustrated Epistle Extract: Being Healthy in New Zealand

As I write this we are still Covid free, but getting fed-up of mostly sitting outside bars and cafes, especially as we have had a burst of wintry weather. The boyf is super fed up as he doesn’t have as many down jackets and woolly hats as I do.

Because of my reducing-the-money-I-give-to-polluting-dairy-companies, I have amassed a small fortune with the money I've saved from having my coffee black instead of enjoying a latte. But my jar will keep filling up for a while before I feel it is worth the risk of eating out..

I'm waiting for three weeks to pass without hearing of a someone we know here getting Covid before I venture inside to mingle with people at random, without a mask.

We've also been looking into our long-term health. We are generally healthy, but we're getting older (shock!)

So we want to know that should anything happen we’ll be covered. New Zealand has a public health system that covers emergencies, but it is patchy when it comes to everything else.

This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

Or head to the archive to read more here.

Illustrated Epistle Extract: Is it Safe to be Let Off the Leash?

We are waiting this week for more details of the new COVID traffic light system which comes into effect on December 3. It will mean less lockdowns and less restriction of movement.

People who are doubly vaccinated will be let off the leash, particularly in Auckland, where they have been in lockdown for over 100 days. Travel out of Auckland is is kicking off from the 15th of December. My sister has booked a flight to see us in Christchurch a week later. Hopefully by then they will have ironed out the kinks.

Not being let off the leash as much is Molly. She has been a very bad girl, attacking other dogs for no reason. Only a few, but randomly, nice dogs, and luckily dogs that belong to people we know. It's upsetting and embarrassing (she hasn't drawn blood, but she has come away with mouthfuls of fur on two occasions. Not a good look.).

A dog trainer came out to the house on Thursday. Although she gave me some general training tools that I will put into practice, she couldn't explain why it was happening. Only to continue to work on training her to not only to obey our commands, but make her own good choices! I'm not sure how this is going to work…

This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

Or head to the archive to read more here.

Illustrated Epistle Extract: Level 4 Lockdown in New Zealand and Loving It

When I emailed our extended family to say that we were back in lockdown in New Zealand, my almost brother-in-law asked how many cases had put us there. The answer is one. This has been a focus of attention of foreign media, but was no surprise to most Kiwis who valued the relatively normal, COVID-free lives we had been living during most of the pandemic.

I’m delighted that we have a trigger-happy government that put us into complete lockdown within a day because one person in the community tested positive for COVID-19. Because we have the luxury of giving elimination another try. And it just might work.

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Click to see options for using the image

Level four is the harshest lockdown level in New Zealand and it is way stricter than lockdowns in other countries. Only essential workers can go out to work. Everybody else has to be at home unless you need to buy groceries, go to the pharmacy/post office, or go out to exercise. I had a cold when we went into lockdown and though I said I had no reason to think it was the novel coronavirus, the local health centre invited me in for a test (like all COVID-19-related healthcare, testing is free). The last time I did it it wasn’t so bad, but it’s really uncomfortable if you have a sore throat. Then we had to absolutely stay home for two days whilst I waited for the results. Thankfully negative.

Click to see options for using the image

Click to see options for using the image

This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

Or head to the archive to read more here.