First of 3 inspired by Mondrian’s “Red Tree”. Sold at Mana Arts Trail 2025
Commentary from 2017 post – This tree is a survivor. It sits above the hairpins taking you from Arrowtown Junction to the top of the vertical terminal moraine at the end of the greater Queenstown Valley. From here, the Crown Range Road turns North towards Cardrona and Wanaka.
Update from 2021 – The tree is gone, possibly because it was a wildling pine, but maybe just because, as below.
It’s magnificently isolated up here, the highest state highway in NZ – pleasant in summer, dangerous in winter, spectacular in both. I first rode it on a Honda 350 in the summer of 1974, it was all 3-tyre-track gravel then and slidey, but even so, the main warnings from locals related to the changeable weather. It’s 2 lane and sealed now, but is still 1 of 4 NZ roads which rented campervans are banned from using.
Built from a photo one late afternoon in winter coming back to Queenstown after skiing at Cardrona or Triple Cone (also having noted the scene in passing many times and occasionally stopping). It’s always close to zero and windchill cold at that time. I nailed all of that I think, 3 or 4 goes and 6 or so years – but that feeling of coldness is apparently not a great sales strategy in the NZ market (whereas it’s a staple in North America and Northern Europe). So it’s a one-off!
Alistair McDonald's Art 