Saturday, April 19, 2008

World’s Biggest Pancake Party!

Today we took a long drive up the West Coast, leaving Glacier Country behind and heading north to Abel Tasman. Hopefully we’ll find warmer climes than this morning. Today, the car was pretty well frozen over. She’s still holding up fine, but it took a while to get moving today.

About halfway through our seven hour journey, we made a quick stop at Paparoa National Park. Thanks to its location right on the “highway” and its really short walking trails, we were not the only ones to take in the park’s signature attraction, the Pancake Rocks. Lonely Planet promised us a “splendiferous” display, so we were keen to check it out.

The rocks earned their name because their many layers left over time resemble giant stacks of pancakes (and there we were without our syrup). Of course, this reminded us of all of our friends from our Christchurch Weekend Fun Crew who helped us kick start many a Saturday by devouring similar stacks of pancakes back at our “castle.” We miss you guys!

Once again, we were very fortunate with conditions. The skies were perfectly clear and the surf was just rough enough to send some impressive sprays through the many blowholes in the rock formations. This combination provided the ideal lighting for a rainbow show every time a big wave came in. I guess that’s what they mean by “splendiferous.”

Our other major activity of the day came as we were trying to kill some time during the long drive. We’d love to have your input as we try to settle on a winner of our little game. Some of you may be familiar with the concept: draft a fantasy ultimate team from a player pool of all current professional athletes. Some basic guidelines: 5/2 format, your team has a month to practice together (and oh yeah, learn how to play ultimate) starting today, they’re playing savage so O and D count, team chemistry counts, etc, etc.

Anyway, here are the draft results. Team managers have been withheld so as not to influence the voting. Please vote for who you think would be the best ultimate team. As always, you comments are also greatly appreciated. (H = Handler, M = Mid, D = Deep)

Chicken Balls
H - Serena Williams (Tennis)
H - David Beckham (Soccer)
H- Tiki Barber (Football)
M – LaDanian Tomlinson (Football)
M – Victor Vito (All Blacks Rugby)
D – Venus Williams (Tennis)
D – Jose Reyes (Baseball)

Mini Horses
H – David Wright (Baseball)
H – Rebecca Lobo (Basketball)
H – Tony Romo (Football)
M – Justine Henin (Tennis)
M – Wes Welker (Football)
D – Kevin Garnett (Basketball)
D – Jacoby Ellsbury (Baseball)

Hooker Valley All-Stars
H - Lebron James (Basketball)
H – Chris Paul (Basketball)
H – Mia Hamm (Soccer)
M – Kobe Bryant (Basketball)
M – Adrian Peterson (The good one) (Football)
D – Michelle Wie (Golf)
D – Ed Reed (Football)

Cold Buttz
H – Derek Jeter (Baseball)
H – Landon Donovan (Soccer)
H – Diana Tirasi (Basketball)
M – Reggie Bush (Football)
M – Heather Mitts (Soccer)
D – Tracy McGrady (Basketball)
D – Devon Hester (Football)

3 comments:

doug said...

AC, with regards to your comment from ages ago. I did not bring the book on this trip, I am in serious vacation mode. Upon return to the states however, all posts and comments will be reviewed for "book-worthiness"

Jay said...

I'd have to say it's a toss up between Hooker Valley All Stars (although I question the choice of Michelle Wie), and Cold Butts.

Looks like you guys are having a blast though...I'm jealous. Love the blog.

Tom said...

I agree with Jason.

Mini-horses would put up some strong numbers early but would get wiped out by strong zone-D and the Jessica Simpson effect.

It's hard to pick a clear winner between HV All-Stars. Michelle Wie might not have the foot-speed of some of the other players but her tremendous core-strength and hand-eye coordination make for some sick layout-d's (also kudos for selecting outside the obvious analogs).

I think in the end however, the deep game of Cold Buttz would overwhelm all comers and take the prize.

And I challenge anyone to be more authoritative than that!