Drawing Cone Hut

    One of my favorite huts from among those I drew in the Tararuas was Cone hut. Built in 1945-6, the hut replaced two huts nearby parts of which were used in the construction of Cone Hut. Piles and slabs were cut from surrounding trees and everything else was carried in including 1.5 tonnes of cement.  Cone Hut is the only slab hut in the Tararuas that remains in such good condition. It has a lot of character and is in a beautiful little spot next to a river. Perfect location for a hot summer weekend.

   This was the first hut of the second week. That morning we had walked out from Blue Range hut, said good bye to Luc (who hitched back up north), meet up with three more friends, and all tramping out to Cone Hut. We did the three hour walk in two and jumped into the river as soon as we got there. It was our first really nice day, we had sun and blue sky for a couple of days! The river was cold, but so nice to go for a swim and a proper wash!

   I drew the hut that evening. It went well from the start and is one of my favorite drawings from the trip. I kept it simple, focusing on the hut and didn't add any background. I drew on brown paper with black and white charcoal. 

L-R: Dominic, Marion, Pauline, Guillaume, Me, and Jojo, and Esther behind the camera.

  I'm so blessed to have such good friends always eager to come on a 'hut hop' with me. They always remind me I should be out drawing and not enjoying the warm fire or the cold river too long! Thank you all!!

   That night we shared the hut with two Norwegian hunters. There was not much space in the hut, especially in the sleeping area, but we all squeezed in. Everyone took it in good humour and one of the Norwegian fellow's deep loud laugh remained famous with us for the rest of the week. 

   We walked out back to the cars the next morning. At the end of the walk out was a long high swing bridge. They are always fun to cross. Most of us ran down to the river and jumped in after walking out from the hut. Afterwards we drove arround to our next car park and spent the rest of the week tramping a loop around Field, Kime, Mungahuka, and Penn Creek huts. 

   I took all my drawings into the copy shop to be scanned last week so I now have digital images of them all which is great. Below is a page from my dunny sketchbook. I've done a lot of little sketches of various dunnys at the huts. The Cone hut dunny had an entire wall made of punga logs, one of which was missing...