Summer!

Today is the official first day of summer in New Zealand! It is definitely warmer now than it was when I first arrived. Many days get up to a very pleasant, but cool, 18 degrees celcius. (It's a good thing I reviewed the metric system last year. It's used throughout New Zealand. More on that later.) So I still need a sweater when I go out because the wind is cold, but the sun is warm.

As you can see in the picture above, there are mountains not too far away from us. It would take us two hours to drive there. They are called the Southern Alps. They are so tall that even though it's summer they are getting fresh snow on their peaks. When it gets warmer, we'll drive over there and "suss them out," as the Kiwis say. When you "suss out" something you check it out.

The hills and valleys near our home are still very green. The little lambs are much bigger now. They have grown so much in just a month! Every weekend we go tramping over the hills or along the coast. In New Zealand, it's easy to find a pretty place to go for a walk. (Did you use your context clues to figure out that Kiwis use the term "tramping" for our term "hiking"?)

The sun rises at about 5:30 in the morning now, and doesn't set until about 9:00 in the evening. What time is sunrise and sunset now in New York? Here is a picture I took from my living room window. You can see the sun rising over the ocean. Can you see the big boulder? It's called Cave Rock because there is a cave inside it. The water and sand wore a hole right through it. Now that's a good example of erosion! It's neat inside.

School is still in session. In this picture you see one of the 6-year-olds drawing a picture of each one of her family members. Good job, don't you think?! Her family is from the island of Samoa, but now they live here in New Zealand. You'll notice that she has left her hat on , although she's pushed it off her head. All students are required to wear hats during recess during this 4th term at school, because the sun is getting so intense. It helps protect the face against skin cancer. Because of the holes in the atmosphere around Antarctica, and because there is little pollution in the air, the sun rays are even more intense here than in New York during the summer.

This is a picture of Margaret's house. She is one of my Kiwi friends. As you can see, in December her garden is in full bloom, and the trees and grass are very green. The day I took this picture, I was picking her up to drive to a potluck luncheon with some of our other friends. One woman from our group lives on a farm and raises miniature horses. She invited us all over for the afternoon.

Here is a picture of some of us looking at her horses. Margaret is the woman wearing pink in the front of this picture. Aren't the horses cute?!? Just look at their little legs! It's hard to believe that they are fully grown. A child could ride a horse this size, but a grown-up would be too heavy for it.

Here is a picture of a horse from The Royal New Zealand Show for comparison. You can see that the miniature horses are less than half the size of a standard horse. Wouldn't you like to have one for a pet?

As we move into summer, I know that you are moving into winter. Is it getting cold there yet? The kids here are envious that you get snow during the winter, and that sometimes you have a day off from school for a snow day. They think that would be great!