National Ultimate Champions 2007

Thats what my new hat reads across the front.

Today, I was part of my first National Championship ultimate team, as the Canterbury (Christchurch) team (nicknamed Fox for this tournament) won a thrilling finals game over Aukland's Blue Fish. Winning is always great, but helping an underdog to a National Championship is pretty special.

The New Zealand ultimate season consists of 3 tour events: a placement tourney in Aukland for Men's and Women's teams, a Championship event in Christchruch (this tournament) for Men's and Women's teams and a Championship event in Wellington for Coed teams. We came in seeded number 2, and as I wrote yesterday lost to Aukland (the perennial power in this country) in our pool play game. But, because there were only 6 teams, we had two more pool play games today (we beat the Christchurch B-team and the Aukland B-team by a combined 34-4) and then went into the finals.

The finals featured pretty straight upwind/downwind conditions that made throwing pretty tricky and had me worried about our ability to score going into the wind (Aukland was faster, taller and had more skilled thowers, but they only had 10 guys to our 14, so we had the energy advantage). We started out with 2 upwind goals to take a 5-0 lead and were looking strong, but as ultimate games go, we faltered a bit, taking half 9-6 and giving one of our upwind goals back. Then we fought our way to an 11-9 lead, before giving up two goals to set the score at 11-11 as the cap went off meaning we were playing to 14. We promptly gave up our wind advantage and were suddenly down 11-13 and recieving with the wind. After a couple possessions by each team, including a point where Bluefish had the disc within 5 yards of the endzone to win the game, we finally punched in the goal (I was on the sideline for that point, as I was playing mostly upwind points) to make the game 12-13. We had a lot of work left to do as we were pulling into the wind and were playing without the teams captain and possibly best all around player who had been injured earlier. We came out playing 1-3-3 zone and Bluefish moved the disc down to within 15 yards of victory before Jake got a handblock from the chase position. We marched the disc up the length of the field in pretty heavy winds and Jake threw a goal to tie the game at 13-13. We were all pretty amped and now had the wind in our favor on double-game point. The seven from the previous point stayed on the field, meaning I got to play double-game point for the New Zealand Championship. We came down in 1-3-3 again with Jake marking and me in the wall and after a couple dicey throws on their own endzone, Bluefish floated a swing pass that was caught by one of our players and then thrown short to Jake for the victory!

14-13 Christchurch!

This game meant a TON to all of the players here in Christchurch and I was honored to be a part of their celebration. Though I may never see a lot of those players again, I definitely had a great time getting to know them and taking the field of battle with them.

And now, I can say I am a National Ultimate Champion (-;

The Christchurch Experience

Hello again! I have been back in Christchurch for 4 days now and have been enjoying my time here. I leave on Monday for a couple days down south (Queenstown and Wanaka) so I thoughtI'd take a little time to update the happenings.

After the 5 days of travel, I decided I needed a bit of a rest on this vacation, so I took Wednesday as a relax day and slept in a bit. After waking, I organized the photos I had taken on the trip (570 ish after deleting the bad ones) and Jake was able to get out of work early, so he was home around 3 PM. We drove into the center of Christchursh and threw the frisbee around a bit before heading to one of my favorite spots: The Casino! Jake and I sat down at a $5 Black Jack table and played cards for a while. I was playing with $50 and got up a bit before getting raked over by a couple horrible dealers leaving me with just $10 of my original money. Couple interesting things to note about Black Jack here: a push is called a "stand off" which I think is definitely an upgrade, you can't double down if one of your cards is an Ace (Major bummer!), and the dealer only deals one of their cards face up to start (the rest of their cards come after all of the players have finished their betting, giving new meaning to the phrase "taking the dealers card".

On our way out of the Casino, I decided to let my $10 ride on Twisted Metal black at the Roulette table, and hit to double up my money. We went to get some dinner at Burrito Company and then decided to swing back into the Casino on the way to the car. I started with a $10 bet on Twisted Metal Red at the Roulette and hit again, getting me up to $30. Jake was done gambling, so I sat back down at our $5 table and got down to business. I got my money back, and when we left I was up $40 on the night,which was nice. We went back to Jake's and went to bed pretty early.

My Thursday was pretty productive. I did some internetting at a cafe near Jake's and then headed into Christchurch for some walking around and such. I went to the downtown mall to get a knee brace and then met Jake for ultimate practice around 6:15. At practice I found out that I made the Christchurch A team for the upcoming tournament, which was nice since I didn't really want to play with the B team. We did some good running around, and my knee (which has had limited mobility since a football injury almost a month ago) felt ok. After practice, we got some food from Two Fat Indians restaurant and watched Wedding Crashers on the DVD.

Friday morning, Jake's wife Michelle and her sister Amy arrived from LA around 11 AM and the three of us hung out for a while. Michelle had to go to work, so Amy and I went into Chirstchurch, had a couple beers at Dux de Lux and got some food. Friday night the four of us got some great sushi and just hung out at Jake and Michelle's place, making a pretty early night of things as Jake and were playing ultimate the next day and Amy and Michelle were pretty beat from their travels.

Saturday (today) Jake and I played in the 2nd of 3 New Zealand Ultimate Tour events here in Christchurch with the Christchurch (Canterbury) team. We started out against a team from the North Island called MUA, and took that game fairly easily. I was basically only playing offensive points because my knee doesn't really allow me to reach higher than 75% of my top speed. Our second game was a big one against 2005 Callahan Award winner Tank from Texas and the Wellington team. The game was back and forth, but we pulled away and won 17-12. Our third and last game of the day was against top seeded Blue Fish from Aukland, the cream of New Zealand Ultimate. As the tourney is a round robin and the other 2 teams we play on Sunday (tomorrow) are cream puffs, this game was essentially meaningless as we would be playing them again in the finals. Still, players on both sides really wanted the game, and we ended up losing 13-11 in a game we very easily could have won.

So, I am sceduled to wake up in 8 hours or so and get into the playing again. I hope my knee loosens up enough to allow me to play well, because I am pretty into this tourney. For the day I had one turnover on a number of touches and even got a D! Not bad for a gimp...

Down the West Coast and Across Arthur's Pass

After leaving Abel Tasman we headed west towards a town called Westport. The plan was the spend Monday night in Westport and then spend Tuesday traveling down the west coast and back to Christchurch via Arthur's Pass. The drive from Abel to Westport was phenomenal! The road took us along a river, through rolling hills and sheep farms, and then into the Southern Alps. After a couple of hours of driving, with a couple photo stops we came upon the town of Westport, a town which my guide book described as "lacking in charm". We found that all of the motels had no vacancies and were worried we'd have to spend another night sleeping on the ground. But, we located a backpackers place called the Trip Inn which provided us with a double room complete with real mattresses. With lodging secured we headed out for some dinner and found a place called Porta Bello which served me a nice steak and Jake some beef lasagne, both complete with delicious salad. Feeling content after a nice meal, we headed out into the night to find the entire town closed at 9:30 PM. Oh well! We walked back to our place, split 3 beers and went to sleep, enjoying the comforts of one of the smallest mattresses I've ever slept on.


We were out of the Trip Inn around 10 AM and heading south along the west coast. The west coast of New Zealand is bordered by the Tasman Sea and looks a lot like the Pacific Coast of the US. The road bordering the west coast here even greatly resembles Route 1, so the scenery was wonderful. We made a couple photo stops and then arrived at our first attraction of the day: the Pancake Rocks. These rocks are a wonderful sight and we spent about 30 minutes walking around them, snapping lots of photos.



We continued on to a town called Greymouth, which is probably the biggest town on the west coast and took lunch there. After lunch, we continued south and then cut east heading towards Arthur's Pass and Christchurch. We were again treated to wonderful scenery and great views of pastures and mountains. As we came into Arthur's Pass, we decided to get out and go for a short hike into the woods. With our legs stretched we then got a snack at a small cafe in town (and by town I mean like 3 stores) and then moved on to the home stretch. Our last stop of the journey was at one of Jake's favorite places: Castle Hill. Castle Hill is very close to where Narnia was filmed (we drove past the road that was made to serve the Narnia set) and basically consists of hundreds of rocks on a hill. Some nice photo shots, and also a great place to just wander around and marvel. After our stop at Castle Hill we headed into Christchurch, arriving around 7PM or so. We unpacked, had a nice fish dinner and watched the movie Miracle to unwind from our journey.

The Abel Tasman Experience

I have not done very much hiking, and have not actually hiked for more than one day (i.e. have not hiked, camped, hiked, then camped again without going to a car) so I was very excited to get the double experience of hiking in New Zealand and going for a real hike. After our stop in Motueka, we continued on to Abel Tasman National Park, which is located on the north coast of the south island. We arrived a little after noon and decided to catch lunch and a beer at the last part of civilization we would see for a couple days, a place called Mac's (also the name of the beer they served). Jake and I sat down to a wonderful view of the ocean and enjoyed the tranquil scene. My excitement was growing.

Around 1:30 or 2 we began our journey into the woods with food, sleeping bags, 4 liters of water, a tent and some clothes; pretty standard camping stuff. We hiked for about 2 hours, hugging the coast and enjoying the cover of ferns and trees to shield us from the sun (probably about 80-85 during the day) and then decided we'd stop and go for a swim at one of the many beaches we were passing. So, down we went to Appletree Beach and enjoyed our first of many dips in the mighty Pacific Ocean. After cooling off (the water was refreshing, i.e. cool) we had a snack of sweaty cheese and sweaty pepperoni (always a good sign when your first snack already has elements of sweat) and threw the frisbee around for a little while.



We got back on the trail and plugged along for another couple of hours until we reached our resting spot for the night, Watering Cove. After a pretty steep descent from the main trail, we came upon a campsite unlike any I have ever seen. We were feet away from a nice sandy beach, which had rocks on both sides and a stunning view of Tasman Island with mountains behind. And we were sharing this treat with only 4 other people, which meant we basically had our run of things. So, we took a quick swim and then set about cooking some dinner (soup) and chilled a bottle of wine and a beer in a nearby stream for later. After enjoying some food, we played a game of cribbage and then kicked back with some wine to trade stories and watch the sunset. We were treated to a great light show from the stars and I glimpsed my first view of the infamous Southern Cross constellation, which was great. We tried as hard as we could to figure out how the moon progresses from no moon to full moon and what the difference between a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse was, but didn't really come up with much. We headed to bed a couple hours after the sun went down.



Our Sunday began by watching a very nice sunrise over the mountains across the ocean from us. We had a breakfast of granola bars and apples (Gala! purchased on the side of the road as we entered Abel Tasman!) and then headed out on the next part of our journey. We traversed some mud flats because that was the low tide short cut and decided to have a peanut butter and jelly snack on the next beach we came to. As we were eating, a woman in her late 20's and her mother came by and talked with us. She saw we had a frisbee and asked if we played and might like to throw around. So, after our eating, the 3 of us went out onto the sand bar and threw for about 30 minutes; a very nice break from the hiking. Sunday was giving us a bit of rain to deal with, nothing sustained, but just enough to have us a little worried for the evening. We continued on the trail until coming along a wonderful little spot called Medlands Beach where we decided to have a snack and take a swim. As we ate another round of sweaty pepperoni and still sweatier cheese, we played another game of cribbage and enjoyed the company of a couple crazy looking ducks.




After our stop, we plugged through the rest of the hike to our resting spot for the night, Tonga Quarry Beach. We again had a wonderful beach, with a wonderful view and a nice stream to chill our beers. We cooked a dinner of packaged tortellini, and then settled into another game of cribbage and a bottle of Pinot Noir that I'd purchased at one of the wineries. About 3 hands into our game the rain started again, so we went to secure our tent and gear. The moisture subsided so we went out to finish the game and start the wine. As we finished the game, the rains came again and we decided we'd just stay on the beach and wait for the water to pass. After some minutes of just sitting on the sand in the rain we decided we'd better at least seek shelter under the trees, so we moved to a nearby picnic table and resumed our conversation. The rain continued but we were decently covered and all of our gear was fine, so we just enjoyed the quiet (the other 5 people at the site had all gone into their tents). As we sat talking at the table, we were joined by what appeared to be a very furry cat with a long tale. We had no flashlight with us, so we kinda just watched this thing move around us, as Jake speculated that perhaps the animal was a baby puma or a baby jaguar. The rain died down and we decided to head back to the beach and away from whatever this cat thing was. So, we settled back into our spot by a rock and were quickly chased back to our tent by another onslaught of rain. We decided we better just go to sleep rather than risk another encounter with the cat thing.

The next morning was spent drying all of our wet gear in the hot sun and readying ourselves for the short hike to the beach we had scheduled a water taxi from at 2:30 PM. As we were cleaning up we could see that paw prints had been left in the night leading right up to the door of our tent. Everything dried out quite well and we were on our way for the last 30 minutes of hiking. The beach we came upon was again beautiful and we chilled the 2 beers we had not drank the night before in a sheltered stream for later. We decided we'd try to take an earlier water taxi back to our car so that we could have an easier drive to our next stop. After changing our reservation, we enjoyed some swimming, some more photos and those 2 beers. The water taxi whizzed us back to base camp in about 20 minutes or so (what had taken us nearly 10 hours to hike), and we enjoyed a beer and sandwich back at Mac's before heading out on our next adventure. I think we hiked a total of about 15 miles over the two days, with some pretty steep grades and we were both happy to be back sitting in civilization.

They Drive on the Other Side of the Road!

Finally back at a computer! I wrote this on my first day here in Christchurch. I'll be back with some more in a couple minutes...

As my flight was about to take off from Aukland, I thought to myself that since NZ drivers drive on the left side of the road, I should aim for what I think of as the driver side of Jake's car when he came to pick me up, so as not to look silly. Of course, even with the premeditation I had a mental lapse and headed for the normal passenger side before Jake stopped me with a quick joke. Dang! I had the whole event planned out too! The whole driving on the other side of the road thing is pretty difficult to get used to! And riding as a passenger on the left of the car is also quite odd.

Has anyone else ever felt like a book they were reading started relating to their life at the very moment they were reading the book? I feel as though this has happened to me on a couple of occasions and I can't tell if I shape my thinking in life at the moment I am reading a book to have a common theme with the book, or if I am just reaching to find a similarity between what I am reading and what is going on in my life at that moment. But, anyway, I am reading a John Grisham (pure entertaining garbage, I know) in which the lead character is being forced to adapt to a new culture and a new language and he is taking that approach that he take the bull by the horns. Now, obviously I am not trying to pick up a new language, but the culture here is certainly different, and as Jake is working today I am just basically killing some time by myself. Though I have often travelled between places by myself I have spent very little time in new places by myself and I am still getting used to how different you feel walking down a street you've never been on, by yourself, with no true intended purpose.

On Jake's recommendation I decided to go for a bike ride towards the center of town. Simple enough right? But consider this: you bike on the opposite side of the street (so as to travel with the cars) and when you approach an intersection you must first look to the right, instead of to the left, because that is the closest lane of travel. And when you are crossing an intersection, you have to watch for left-turns from your direction of travel and right turns from the opposite direction of travel, which, at least to me, is more difficult that one might think. Now combine, riding a bike under totally different traffic conditions on streets you've never been on, and the simple bike ride into town becomes a bit more of an adventure. I must mention that the temperature is a near perfect 75 degrees or so, which made any worries I had disappear pretty quickly (-;

So, I made my first trip towards town, didn't really get all the way into town, but then rode back to a small shopping center where I made my first purchases on New Zealand soil. Now, I am back at Jake's just relaxing after all of the travels and all of the hectic happenings of the past few days. Nice to sit down with a new beer (Monteith's Summer Ale) and just unwind.

Into the Wilderness

This is the first time I've been on the www since arriving in Christchurch a couple days ago, and as I am just passing through a small town called Motueka, I will be brief. Jake and I are on our way to Abel Tasman National Park on the northern coast of the South Island, where we'll spend two nights hiking and sleeping on the beach. Should be very beautiful, and I am pretty excited.

We spent yesterday driving north along the east coast through rain and grey skies, but made the most of the day by stopping to sample a couple wineries and having a great dinner of Green Shell Mussels in the Green Shell Mussel capitol of the world: Havelock. We had no lodging reservation and things got a bit dodgy, but we eventually found a small campground outside of Richmond and all was well.

My two days in Christchurch were fun and the weather has been great, aside from the rain yesterday. I'll post more when I have more time and will definitely get some cool pictures up here very soon.

Touchdown!

I am on the ground in Aukland, New Zealand awaiting my connecting flight over to Christchurch where Jake is scheduled to pick me up in about 3 hours. New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of the east coast, so add a day and subtract 6 hours to the present time in EST and you arrive at my time. If anyone needs/wants to know the future, I am here and I can help you out for a small fee.

My 13 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean was not all that bad. I was seated way back in row 61 and immediately missing the comforts of first class. The seat was a touch cramped, but since I'd been up since 8AM that morning, I knew I'd be able to get some sleeping in. Air New Zealand featured a nice selection of movies to choose from and I went with Flags of our Fathers which was entertaining, but probably would have been a bit more powerful had I not been viewing a 6 inch screen on the back of the seat in front of me. The dinner of chicken, potatoes and spinach was tolerable and I had a couple glasses of Pinot Noir to ease into sleep mode.

After the movie ended, I nodded in and out sleep for about 7 hours, which was pretty decent all things considered. Once I had determined I wasn't going to be sleeping much more, I launched into The Departed which is a phenomenal movie. I was served a bit of breakfast (which I may regret later) and then we began our descent into Aukland. I cleared customs no problem and after getting turned around a bit in this airport (there are essentially no directional signs anywhere; thank goodness this is an English speaking country!) I eventually made my way over to the Domestic Terminal and am now looking to board in about 40 minutes.

The sun just rose and I am now treated to a cool view of some mountains behind the runways.