The USK Wellington event finished on the Monday afternoon, but I stayed in town for the rest of the week  until a 7:30pm flight on Friday!

This gave me a chance to do a little more exploring in a relaxed way. There was quite a bit of rain in the second week but that was okay as if it was raining I just stayed in my hotel room and did work.

Here are the highlights of the sketching adventures I had in this second week…

On the Monday afternoon a group of us (Michelle, Andrew, Dave, Peter and myself) went to the very cool suburb of Aro Valley (within walking distance from the downtown). Thanks Michelle for the photo.

Lots of cute little buildings and steep hills everywhere.

Peter found a great street view to sketch and I sat next to him but did a wider view – trying to capture the hills and houses.

BTW for this second week in Wellington I decided to focus on using Inktense and Tombow exclusively. No watercolour! If you missed it, this was due to the monthly theme inside my community of Unused Supplies.

Afternoon coffee – doing smaller than usual sketches in an Andrew-style.

Tuesday: I spent a wonderful day walking the streets (climbing hills) with Peter and we spent a lot of time looking at and analysing the architecture of Wellington.

It was great to learn about Ian Athfield and I love this apartment building. Look at all those volumes!

We climbed Mt Victoria (the pines and gorse gave me Scotland vibes).

And kept walking till we got this great view of Wellington. I didn’t finish this at the time as I was unsure how best to do the distant hills in marker. I decided to leave it as it was with lots of white space.

Back in the Cuba St area we found this amazing bookstore to sketch. 

Wednesday: On my own now for the rest of the trip.

Another Prefab visit before a Watercolour Livestream and some swatches to solve the problem of distant hills using Inktense and Tombows.

I decided I needed a few more markers. Post livestream cafe sketching (a car in the cafe!)

Back at Glover Park for a more complex view.

Thursday: Sketching the wind/rain shelters of Wellington from the comfort of a cafe. 

Quick lunch with Andrew and gift of a zine  containing one day’s work of sketching. So inspiring – thanks Andrew!) After hiding in a cafe because of the rain I realised it had changed to blue skies and sun. So I headed to the suburb of Thorndon. So much to sketch here.

The street I want to sketch next visit!

Walking back into the downtown via a cemetery. The Beehive building (parliament offices) is not my favourite type of building to sketch.

Friday: My last day and a big solo day of sketching… starting with another visit to Prefab.

Back to the Beehive – this time I went inside…

USK Wellington had an exhibition inside! Impressive.

So great to see the work of sketchers who I now know…

… and get inspiration for sketching locations on my next visit. 🙂

Congrats to USK Wellington on this wonderful exhibition!

Sketching the Beehive at a larger scale made it easier.

Not-quite-finished sketch of the gorgeous Parliamentary Library next door.

It was a sunny day but very windy with strong gusts. It was difficult and tiring to be out sketching.

But I was so happy to visit Old St Pauls.

I totally fell in love with this building – so many great volumes!

Another cafe visit – after a few hours sketching outside I needed to shelter from the wind.

And then it was time to walk back to the hotel. Funny how some things are the same in NZ as in Australia and others are not. I love noticing the differences!

Best flight ever: Super empty airport…

…and then super empty plane, a good tour of Sydney from the air and a 30-minute early arrival. No wait at all anywhere during this trip home. Incredible!

A wonderful time in NZ but as always, it’s great to be home!

Once again if you would like to see more from this trip I filmed two update videos and hosted a livestream (going through every sketch) for my Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon. If you join us for one month you will have access to these videos (and much more!)