What a great smile.

Big fun for the SIX year old

Here he is with a friend (and his brother of course) at Crystal Mountain.

Riding a real HORSE, not a pony!

And riding a real roller coaster too.



But the bungy was the best part.

They smell the same as they did when I was a kid

Here is Amiri getting a good night story.

It was scratch and sniff!  That's a pickle he's sniffing.

Juvenile purple swamp hens

That's right, I said baby pukekos!  Oh my, are they ever charming.  They go 'peep peep'.  Their mamas think they're something pretty special and chase away any threats. 

The See-Food Diet

We went to the Auckland Seafood Festival.  What a fun day.  It was hot and busy, but every step smelled delicious.  We had so much good stuff.

This is a black paua patty on buttered bread, and wood-grilled scampi (looks like shrimp but is a completely different, spinier kind of animal).  I like how Arram is all, 'oooOOOOoooo!'

This is broiled scallops on crostini.

And here's some grilled scallops with mango salsa.

The boys basically ate their body weights in deep-fried squid rings.  And although there were live bands, competitions, and all manner of interesting things to watch, they were only really interested in the 'Little Skipper' zone.

Because there was a fishing game.

And face painting.

And a guy who made balloon animals.  Or even better as far as the boys were concerned:  balloon swords.

Look, Arram went surfing!

And Amiri went diving Under The Sea!

Talkin bout the car wash yeah

To give a little positive reinforcement for demonstrating that they have their hearts in the right places, after we sent off the charity money I took them for a little treat that they'd been clamoring for.

To their very first trip through the automatic car wash.

Just putting something in the mail

Here's a photo of Amiri mailing a letter outside his school.

I documented the mailing because I was brimming over with pride.

You see, earlier in the day at church, he'd found a flyer for a charity appeal.  It described the plights of the less fortunate, had some pictures of the struggles in their everyday lives, and talked about how even a small amount of money would help.  It had a postage-paid envelope attached.

Amiri was absorbed with that flyer all through Mass.   When we got home, he and Arram disappeared into their room.

Amiri came out shortly and asked me for some tape.  'Why, hon?'  He held out his hand.  'So this envelope will stay closed.'

He was holding the envelope from the charity flyer, and it was bulging full of coins.  Amiri had opened his piggy bank, and when he explained why to Arram, the little guy immediately ran to find his own money.   They had donated nearly everything they had for the Poor People.

My heart melting, I asked if they were sure, and Amiri said, 'Yes.  I have enough food every day.  Poor people don't.  If I give them some of my money, they can buy food.' 

I threw in some matching funds and converted their coins to mail-able paper money.  And we marched right down to the post box.  I think they taught me something about generosity.
  

A green explosion

Remember how we planted some cool stuff in the backyard?  Well, those seeds started growing.

The peas grew too.

And the to-mah-toes.

And once things kind of got cooking, then they just got all kinds of exuberant.  Here is Arram getting a lesson in watering from Grammie.

And here is the 'after' photo I promised you.

I am a BIG FAN of my water source now

Where does Auckland's water come from?  From big reservoirs in the Waitakeres, of course.  Almost all of it shoots through the bush in this pipe right here (for scale, its diameter is nearly up to my hip).

And how did I get to become acquainted with this pipe?  Because WaterCare will take you to visit it on a special narrow-gauge railway trip along the original path used by the builders when they constructed the pipeline around the turn of the century.

Here are Mom and Dad inside the train.  It's a bit cramped because it has to fit inside the tunnels.  The driver warned us not to stick our hands or heads (especially heads!) out of the cars--there are only 1-2 inches of clearance.

What tunnels?  These tunnels!  There are 19 of them.  Some are very short, but this one goes on for half a kilometer.  They were all hand-hewn although some of them have since been coated in concrete or blocks.  See the bird's nest?

Here is the interior of another tunnel.  Those are cave wetas. 

Some of the tunnels had glow worms on their ceilings.  The conductor turned out the lights and slowed down and we watched the ghostly blue stars pass by within inches of our eyes.

When we weren't underground, there was some stunning scenery to enjoy as we dieseled through.  This lake is another reservoir (with a separate sub-pipe that we did not visit).  On its far left side, you can just make out the dam which we visited in the first photo here.

These photos are all facing roughly south, looking out through the hills toward the Manukau Harbor.

At one point the conductor was all, 'This might be a nice place to stop and stretch your legs a bit,' so we did.  It turned out to be a little difficult to have a walk-around, though...

Because he'd stopped us in the centre of an old trestle bridge!

What a unusual experience this was turning out to be.  We ducked through a few more tunnels and then ended up at the main dam.  And because this is New Zealand and they actually encourage you to participate in this sort of madness for fun, we climbed up it.  'No children under five,' he warned us.  Safety first and all.

See what we climbed?  If your palms are getting a little clammy thinking about it, well, that's about right.

Here is what we drink.  Because this lake is fed by a huge watershed, it would take only 2-3 hours of heavy rain to fill it from this point.

Then we ate our picnic and retraced our steps back home.  And that is the story of Auckland's water!
 

Serious training

The boys decided they wanted to run a marathon like Mama did once upon a time.  I told them they'd need to train hard for it.  So I marked out a little path on our patio and told them to run fifty (!) there-and-backs, counting them off with chalk as they went.



They both did it!  It was a good introduction to distance running.  They'll be skimming along the trails before we know it.
 

Every other Thursday, we have to be dressed early for this

Because every other Thursday is when the recycling truck comes!

First it goes down one side of the street, and then it comes back up the other side.  There is much excitement among the boys.  And not just our two, either-- there are three other houses nearby where little boys dash outside to watch the circus.

Did you see it, Special Bear?

And then Amiri eagerly does his chore of returning the empty wheelie bin to the garage.

It bounces

Here is the Opanuku Stream near West Wave.

And here we are, exploring the floating dock!

One ring to rule them all...

Dad found these neat rings at a specialty shop downtown.  They're made of jade.  They're translucent if you hold them up to the light and you can see the veins in the stone.  How cool is that?