When I'm not devising ways to work my niece and nephew into my books, I'm taking pictures of them and inflicting said pictures on others. Today it's the Internet's turn to suffer. This is my niece heading off to high school with her walking companions Kenneth and Tristan. (Morning only: they walk home in other configurations). The reason the second photo is bizarre is because I made the mistake of asking them to "walk normally."
The University of Auckland is on break for a few weeks, so this morning I drove my nephew and two of his friends, George and Joe, out to South Auckland to pick up a very small rental car. They're driving down to Wellington for a few days, so George and Joe can see their (probably long-suffering) families and my nephew can experience bone-chilling winds and freezing rain. They're all first-year students at Auckland, and they were all exchange students last year during their final year of high school - George in England, Joe in Argentina, and my nephew in Mexico. Here are the Three Musketeers posing by their tiny rental car.
It usually takes eight hours or so to drive from Wellington to Auckland, but it may be even longer today: the infamous Desert Road that crosses the North Island Volcanic Plateau was closed this morning because of snow. At least Mount Ruapehu isn't erupting this year.
It's chilly in Auckland today, but we don't get snow here. Chilly means wearing a scarf, perhaps, or turning on the heater. I'm planning a trip to Waiheke Island tomorrow to visit a friend, not just because I'm missing taking the Devonport ferry every day, and in a week's time I'll be returning to the Land of the Free/Brave (I can never remember which).
You better know which one it is: they ask now when you come back into the country.
I love your niece's Ministry of Silly Walks imitation.
Posted by: Brando | June 26, 2007 at 03:07 PM