Welcome to the Jungle (OK, it's only a forest)

With the ultimate team heading up to Wellington next weekend for Nationals, we had to get the Weekend Fun Crew together one last time before our travels begin. We were well equipped for a trip because on Friday, we bought a car! It's very easy to do here. The hostels and internet cafes are filled with flyers for used cars. Buying a car for a couple months and reselling turns out to be WAY cheaper than renting. You can update the registration at any Post Office. If only the DMV was so easy! So, we are now the proud owners of a '96 Toyota Cavalier (really a Chevy with a Toyota logo).

Anyway, we figured it was our turn to drive so we all piled into the new ride and headed out the Adrenalin Forest! We had a couple of free passes and figured it would be worth checking out. It did not disappoint. The forest has a high ropes course with four different "paths" of increasingly difficult obstacles. After some difficulty with the first ladder, we had a couple hours of fun on zip lines, cargo nets, tight ropes, and tarzan swings. Naturally, we made another video.





We were worn out from a full day on the ropes, so we all headed back to Katherine's for a full nacho fiesta. Last night, the city had Earth Hour, when everyone was encouraged to shut off all their power for an hour to save energy. We had dinner ready just in time for a romantic candle lit dinner for five. After a couple of bottles of wine, the leftovers from our Mustache Party came out and everyone was looking good.


We won't know what to do without you guys next weekend. Good Luck!

Tramping at Arthur's Pass

We hope that everyone enjoyed the Easter weekend! We could see that you all took time out from gorging on chocolate and jelly beans to vote for your favorite scavengers. We’d like to officially congratulate Team Awesome! for winning the people’s choice award! Well done making fools of yourselves around the city earning top honors for ridiculousness! Thanks to everyone who voted too! We’re glad we could entertain you.

This past weekend, we decided to celebrate Easter by going tramping at nearby Arthur’s Pass. We had heard that it was a beautiful place and it definitely did not disappoint! We headed out early Saturday morning to get a full day of tramping in. With Crystal’s expert driving and Hannan’s navigation, we got there pretty quickly (although I really wouldn’t know since I did fall asleep in the back seat). As we got out of the car, the weather was a bit overcast, but not too bad. We started day one in high spirits and enjoyed being out in the wilderness.

After a couple hours, the rain started to pick up and we got pretty wet. We also had to make river crossings along the trail about every half an hour, so our feet didn’t get much time to dry out. It was all good though as the weather wasn’t really too cold and the rain actually felt nice. We stopped a few times along the way to get our bearings, eat, try to push giant rocks over, you know, the usual. After a long 6 hourish day of hiking, we were ready for the dry shelter of Hamilton Hut which would be our home for the night. The 20 bunk hut was pretty swank as far as campsites go. There was plenty of heat and cooking facilities and, most importantly, a nice big table for us to spread out our camp food and enjoy some wine in our vintage St. Paddy’s day “mugs”. It was the perfect place for some card playing to top off the end of the first day.

When we woke up early on day two, we couldn’t believe the difference! The sun was shining and the mountains looked beautiful! So this was what we missed yesterday? We thought the view was pretty great from the hut, but everywhere we went on the trail just got better and better. We got to go over some cool swinging bridges and pretend we were on the amazing race. What could be better?! The second day was a much longer hike, but was well worth it for the amazing scenery. We stopped at a bunch of places to rest and take photos and Chris even took a super quick swim in the freezing cold river. The weather was much warmer, but the water, not so much.

As we continued on our way, we climbed up and up and up and up until we finally reached the absolute best spot on the trail. The views in all directions were spectacular! The weather was clear and sunny and just made the view even that much more amazing. It was totally worth all of the climbing (and the subsequent descent). We hung out at the top for a little while enjoying the views before starting the long, long descent back down to river level. We finally made it to the car park at the end of the trail after hiking for about 8 hours total. Luckily, another group finished at about the same time and was able to give Crystal a ride back to the trailhead where we left the car the day before. Man, it would have sucked to have walked the 11km back to car after finishing!

Overall, it was an awesome weekend and we all had a great time! We hope that you enjoy the photos. It was very hard to choose which ones to put on since we took so many!

All of us at the Hamilton Hut (Day 2)

Jen crosses the first swinging bridge

At the river post swim

Jen relaxing along the river

Chris cooling off for the afternoon

Chris on the trail

Jen checks out the view

We enjoy the awesome view!

The beautiful scenery

Scavengers!

On Saturday, we wanted to give our friend Liz a great send off as she continues her travels around New Zealand. Did we really need an excuse to take to the streets of Christchurch to hunt down ridiculous clues and make fools of ourselves?

Ten of our ultimate playing friends came out to join in the fun, full day of activities. We met at Cathedral Square and settled into teams of three scavengers each. Since Chris planned the whole thing and knew where everything was, he just acted as the floater and tagged along with two different teams.

After an hour and a half of running around, we met up for half time at The Bog, an Irish pub in the middle of the city. Half time activities included a frisbee chugging race and disc jousting. Then we were off again to continue our adventures. Finally we finished up with pizza and beer at our place and reviewed all the evidence of the day's tomfoolery.

Team S.A.M. took advantage of their vast local knowledge and dominated the trivia portion of the hunt. They also put on an absolute clinic on how to suck beer out of a disc through a straw. Just a dominating performance.

With Liz on the team, Team Awesome were the sentimental favorites. The took a solid approach and compiled some hilarious photos. Crystal put on an impressive show in the disc joust competition, defeating all challengers at the Bridge of Remembrance.

In the end, Team CIA was too tough for everyone and took home the points title. They took an organized approach and capitalized on many of the high point value items on the list. They were the only team to get in the back of a police car, get in a wedding photo, and reach the balcony at the Treehouse. Despite being shut out at the halftime competitions, they rallied for the win.

In the end though, we decided to award the trophy to Liz so she'll have something to remember us by. Farewell, Liz!

So here's your chance to vote. Check out the "Best of" videos for all the teams and let us know who should win the "People Choice" Award by voting in the poll on the right!




Team S.A.M.


Team Awesome


Team CIA

Living in the Garden City

Since it's been a relatively quiet week, we thought we'd share some photos from our regular routine living is Christchurch. We've probably featured Cathedral Square before. It's at the heart of the city and it's always filled with tourists, food stalls, and street performers.

Victoria Square, another nice spot for a break.

When we're not too tired from Ultimate or other activities, we walk in and out of the city. It's only about a 15 minute walk along the Avon River to the suburb of Richmond where we live.


Here's our house, known amongst our friends as "The Castle." We share the right half of it with about 7 other people.

Our bedroom is nice and big. The only drawback is a lack of a closet. We do, however, have a nice desk for blogging.

Thanks to Jen and Maelle, the bathroom is always clean.

The kitchen has plenty of room for Pancake Parties and Tim Tam Slams!

In the TV room, we enjoy all five channels that New Zealand has to offer.

Home sweet home, at least for another 3 weeks.

We are getting ready for a weekend of fun. Tonight we'll be heading to a small pre-St. Patrick's Day party. Tomorrow, we've organized a Scavenger Hunt so we'll be running around the city making fools of ourselves. We'll be posting the results here and you'll be able to vote for your favorite team. There's a six pack on the line so vote early and often!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Tramping at Godley Head

After Chris’ first full week of work, we decided that a happy hour on Friday night was well-deserved. So, we met up with some of our ultimate playing friends for a nice night at the local bar, DuxdeLux, for some home brewed beer. While there, we somehow decided that a pancake party was in order for Saturday morning before heading out for our tramp at Godley Head.

After we filled up on delicious pancakes, bacon, eggs, and muffins (it was quite a feast), we drove out to Godley head (about 30 minutes from the city) and started our hike. The views on the way out there were amazing and we saw lots of paragliders. Once we got there, we explored a bit and saw the abandoned shelters and military bunkers that were built during World War II when New Zealand thought that they might be attacked. These military buildings were set up all along the coast as a form of defense (we thought that the enormous Pacific Ocean was enough of a defense, but apparently they didn’t want to take any chances). Well, no one ever invaded New Zealand (big surprise right?) so the buildings went unused and have been abandoned for years. They were cool to see, but I can’t imagine spending months and months in them just waiting for someone to attack. As our friend, Liz, said, they probably got really good at playing cards.

Next we took the coastal walk and then went through a cool tunnel/cave to come out on right near the rocks in the water. We found ourselves on the shaded side of the hill at this point and got a bit chilly pretty quickly. That’s the thing about New Zealand, when you’re in the direct sunlight, you can be sweating, and then when you step into the shade, it’s suddenly freezing. There’s no happy medium. So, we headed back out to the sunny side to continue our hike. We started off with the intention of going to a nearby beach, but we got on the wrong trail and ended up weaving our way through lots of sheep instead. It was actually really good and we got some more great views of the coastline.

After about 2-3 hours of tramping, we were ready to head down to the beach (by car, that is) and relax a bit. We went to Sumner beach (about 10 minutes drive) and had a nice leisurely walk before calling it a day. By the time we made it back to Christchurch, everyone was beat, but it was totally worth it for a fun day out on the trails!
Next weekend we’ve already scheduled a St. Patrick’s Day/Going Away Party for Liz and possibly a scavenger hunt. Stay tuned!

The crew checking out the view from the roof of one of the bunkers

Taking a break on the trail

Yaarrrrrrrrr!

This weekend we made the long trek up to the north coast of the South Island for the Flat Out 2008 Beach Ultimate tournament. We carpooled up with some of our friends and survived a 5 hour drive in a crowded car thanks to some great driving by Crystal. The city of Nelson is supposed to be one of the sunniest places in the country, but it didn't quite work out that way. Saturday, we were absolutely drenched, but we still managed to enjoy some good ultimate and a great party.

As a ten team Hat Tournament, it was very different from our typical beach ultimate experience. Luckily, we were both placed on the same team and with our snazzy light blue t-shirts, the Buccaneers were ready to take on all challengers. The fields were much longer than those at Wildwood (with only 5 fields there was plenty of room) yet, interestingly, the end zones were no bigger. Between that and the weather, it seemed scoring would be a challenge.


We played surprisingly well despite the conditions, we got off to an undefeated start (with a couple of draws) before deciding to play through the lunch break and finishing the day 4-0-2. Our team was a lot of fun and everyone at the tournament was very spirited. What else would you expect from a bunch of scallywags?

The whole Christchurch crew was anxious to get back to the "holiday park" for some hot showers and of course, get on to partying. After some pre-partying in our rooms, everyone donned their best pirate gear and got ready for the party. We were told it was a pirates only affair, so everyone took their costumes very seriously.

The party was sweet! It had everything you could ask for, amazing BBQ, pirates, wenches, limbo, flip cup, $5 jugs, and Piratron (a robot pirate).

We got lucky and had much better weather the second day. Our team got off to a solid start on Sunday before eventually falling to the purple team (whose name escapes me because I've been up too late working on this video, anyway it was pirate related) in our final pool game. After a break for lunch, we were headed to the playoffs where it turns out, as the 2 seed we would play team purple again.

Unfortunately we were unable to avenge our loss and team purple went on to take the title. The Buccaneers rebounded nicely and took third with Jen throwing a Honey Pass to Chris to finish the weekend. The tournament was all about spirit and there was a nice ceremony afterwards with prizes and everything.


All in all, a great weekend and we only listened to the Pirate song about 10 times. Now you can too! Enjoy!