February 22nd, 2018

Epistle Extract: New Zealand Road Trip to Mapua

by Alex Hallatt

Since the last Epistle, I started work on the illustrations to the follow-up to my middle grade book, FAB (Friends Against Bullying) Club. If you want to be part of my advance reading team and receive an illustrated chapter of the book every week you can sign up at Tiny Letter.

I’m a little late in writing, because I just got back from a road trip to the top of the South Island to see my good friend, Jane. She and her husband run an illustration, photography and design business in Mapua, about 430 km (267 miles) from Lyttelton.

New Zealand doesn’t do long distance public transport very well, so there is no train route and no easy way to get to Mapua by bus. Google thinks it is a 5 and a half hour drive in total, so I packed some of my CDs to sing along to:

1. So by Peter Gabriel
2. Walking Man by James Taylor
3. Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
4. Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
5. The Best of Cafe Tacuba
6. Running on Empty by Jackson Browne
7. Morning Phase by Beck
8. Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon
9. Late For the Sky by Jackson Browne
10. Curtain Call the Hits by Eminem
11. Graceland by Paul Simon

You can see all of my reasons to be cheerful at my Doodle Diary.

This is an extract from my monthly Illustrated Epistle. If you want to sign up to see behind the scenes of a cartoonist’s life in NZ, head to http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD