No2 of 3 in this series. I may yet add another tree in the middle foreground, or not. I want the road to push the eye towards Rangitoto Island – so maybe not, 70/30
The 2nd largest of Auckland’s 46 volcanoes (Rangitoto is largest and youngest, only 600yo). I’ve double-named it in English/Maori (“mountain of the kiekie vine”) – in a generation or so we are likely to drop mention of One Tree Hill (a hill somewhere outside London, who cares) for the traditional name.
From the local guidebook -“Maungakiekie’s international profile was lifted after the Irish supergroup U2 wrote the song ‘One Tree Hill’. When the band toured New Zealand in 1984, lead singer Bono visited the landmark and it left a vivid impression. When U2’s crew member, Aucklander Greg Carroll, died as a result of a motorbike accident, the band’s next album, The Joshua Tree, was dedicated to Greg and featured the song ‘One Tree Hill’.“
Acrylics on stretched canvas, 600x600mm. Sold October 2020.
Alistair McDonald's Art 
I like the embracing nature of the road. And what beautiful colors. I also like the new/original name. It’s beautiful to say it.
Thanks Claudia, hope you are coping. I think I’ll varnish tomorrow and then there’s no 2nd-guessing myself! Your comment also reminded me to add- “Maungakiekie’s international profile was lifted after the Irish supergroup U2 wrote the song ‘One Tree Hill’. When the band toured New Zealand in 1984, lead singer Bono visited the landmark and it left a vivid impression. When U2’s crew member, Aucklander Greg Carroll, died as a result of a motorbike accident, the band’s next album, The Joshua Tree, was dedicated to Greg and featured the song ‘One Tree Hill’.”
The names seem to have come around in a spiral kind of shape, that is how I am envisioning the progression of the site’s name from one to the other, and the way it spins off influence and draws it in. (That may sound kind of odd, I tend to think in pictures). On another topic, when you said you think you’ll varnish tomorrow, with my unreliable eyesight I read it as “I think I’ll vanish tomorrow” and I was so intrigued by that idea, that you could vanish at will and so casually! Thank you for asking, we are doing ok here in my area, our city and state were hit hard up front and we have come a ways on the road to adjusting to new realities, that is helping us now. I hope the same for you, that you are well and safe.
I get the spiral image! Yes, it is twisting back -and expanding too, we have been teaching for too long that history started here when Europeans arrived (same elsewhere..), it’s a much richer story. We are vanishing, sort of, on a hired campervan trip this week, the country is empty of tourists and prices are sensible, while it lasts. Yes the news from the US is hard nowdays, we have eliminated covid internally excepting those NZers returning, many have it. But we can’t stay isolated forever, small nations need to trade. Its a whole new world isnt it. Best wishes