Unigames and Rugby Games

Hey All,

It’s Tuesday, first day of the Unigames. It poured cats and dogs today. Rain and strong winds put some doubt in our minds about how the game would go, but as soon as we started playing and getting soaked, our attitudes totally flipped a lid. Ultimate Frisbee became this crazy slip and slide fest with all the coolest layouts a human could possibly do. We became almost completely unstoppable, almost. We played the toughest team today, the next few games should go better. The Unigames, for those of you who don’t know, is a time where 6-10 Universites from around New Zealand compete in a variety of games ranging from Basketball, Rugby, Running, Fencing, Ultimate Frisbee, Surfing, BMX, and a bunch more. In the end all the wins are tallied and the Uni with the most wins in each sport wins the competition. It goes from Monday night to Thursday night; which means we miss school for those 4 days. In most cases the teachers are understanding. It worked out well for me, my teachers were actually thrilled to get me out of class, I’ve been answering too many questions these past few weeks…. Anyway, I had some sweet catches today and some really good layouts. I scored two points for our team and assisted two more. The end score was 13-6 them. But you must understand, half of the team we played is going to the world finals for Frisbee, it’s actually amazing we even scored that much! It’s gonna continue raining the next few days, I think the coaches are trying to move the games inside, that means I won’t be able to do so much sliding. Oh well…

I’ve been to two professional rugby games since I’ve been here too. They’ve been really awesome. The game is really fast paced. The Auckland Blues won the first game and lost the second. The league that they are in is called the Super 14 between the tri nations of South Africa, Australia, and NZ. From here players are chosen to go onto the All Blacks, one of the top Rugby teams in the world. I played rugby with some of the locals and learned to run a little faster when I have some bigger dudes chasing me.

Last Friday was the Air Guitar Finals for NZ. They went pretty well. Garrett, the only American placed 5th in the whole country of NZ. He wore the American flag as a cape, he looked stellar. I’ll be doing a mockumentary on Air Guitar and will hopefully put it up on Youtube, but don’t count on it being anytime soon. I’m here in Rotarua until Friday and then leave Friday night to go to the South Island for two weeks. There I’ll be seeing gorgeous mountains and hiking a lot. I’ll also be doing the highest bungy jump in the world. I love you Mom and Dad and Jeremy, you can have my room and my car if it still works. (I love you too Waldo). It’s going to be an amazing trip. And Lord willing, I also be swimming with whales. No video though, it’s too heavy to carry all that equipment, but maybe so stellar pictures. I miss you all, and hope to hear from you via email or facebook. I try my hardest to get back to all, but since so Thanks again for all your prayer and support and helpful emails.
Tim