Of McNaught, I Saw Nought

Everyone has been banging on about the spectacular beauty of Comet McNaught, so I wanted to see it for myself. Apparently hordes of riff-raff were piling up on Auckland’s volcanic peaks with their cameras and telescopes, so last night I decided I would head out to Piha (a west-coast beach thirty-minutes drive from the city centre, for you unpolished, non-Auckland oiks).

Unfortunately, clouds and thick fog rudely rolled in, and I saw nought of McNaught. I took some photos anyway. My camera is completely rubbish (I have sat on it a few times, and now the battery compartment bulges open in a dangerous manner, and my water-bottle leaked all over it in my handbag yesterday), but the photos look quite marvellous anyway, which proves how talented I am.





Despite the lack of comet, things did get mildly exciting. At 8.45pm, we remembered the car-park locked its gates at nine. Unfortunately, sand-dunes tend towards uniformity, and we got quite lost, so there was a mad, undignified scramble over the beach and through people's properties to retrieve the car.

The lights were on at Les Mills' holiday residence. I wish he would clean his windows; I couldn't see in at all. Most disappointing.