WWOOFing and more

Last Tuesday we left Blenheim and headed to Kaikoura for our first time WWOOFing. WWOOFing which stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms is where you work half days on someone's organic farm in exchange for room and board.

We stayed the week at the "Farmacy" with Peter, Susan and their 14 year-old son Ollie. They have some sheep, chickens, a duck, and some geese. We did quite a range of work, starting with digging post holes for a new fence, then planting a bunch of native trees, bushes, and grasses along a freshly dug canal. After that we did plastering on the outside walls of their new house which Peter is building, followed by some plant maintenance, staining fence posts, and building the walls for a bridge. All this under the shadow of gorgeous mountains and less than a mile from the ocean.

It was great place to spend a week. We quite enjoyed hanging out with the family, sitting by the fire, and biking around Kaikoura.

On Wednesday we hitch-hiked back to Blenheim where we spent the night, did some laundry and repacking before hitching up to Picton. We stayed the night there at a Backpackers(Hostel) and got on the ferry friday morning. The three hour ferry ride weaves through the Marlborough sounds -which are incredible- before crossing the Cook Strait and arriving in Wellington. We were heading to the North Island so I could play in a frisbee tournament in Palmerston North, two hours north of Wellington. We were planning on hitching there also, but on the ferry we ran into a high school team that was heading to the tournament and got a ride up with them.

The tournament was the New Zealand Indoor Nationals and I picked up with a team from Dunedin(in the far south of NZ). Indoor ultimate here is very different from what I've played in the states which is just like outdoor only with a smaller field. Here it's 4 on 4(3 men and 1 woman) and played on a basketball court. The key is the endzone, though its bigger than in the states. It's a trapezoid rather than a rectangle. The game moves pretty quick, except when the disc gets in close to the endzone, when it starts resembling the way basketball moves, especially if the other team plays a tight zone defense. And people throw overheads(and blades) all the time.

I enjoyed playing a lot, though was a little frustrated by not being able to throw or run long. My teammates were very cool. It took us a while to gel, and as a result we lost all of our games on the first day, including a real tough, one point loss in our last game. After a hot tub, a few beers, and just a bit of dancing on saturday night, we came out ready to go on sunday and won all 3 of our games, which placed us somewhere around 7th. My personal highlight was running long to catch a score late in our last game on saturday. After catching the disc I found myself running right towards the scorer's table without time to slow down, so I basically layed out right across it. After a second I stood up, at which point the table collapsed.

Overall the tournament was great, with really close, incredibly exciting semis and finals. I already can't wait to play again, though that probably won't be for a while.