The Home Stretch

That's right, I'm returning to the U.S. exactly one week from today, on April 23rd. The last few have been a great time to relax and little and start thinking about heading home.

After finishing with apples we took a short trip to the Abel Tasman national park. We spent one day sea kayaking along the coast. While paddling around a small island we came upon a blue penguin and we followed it for five minutes or so as it swam and jumped in the water ahead of us, very cool. We paddled for around 4 hours then pulled onto the beach and took our stuff to the hut(park accommodation, bunk beds, bathrooms, and a kitchen). The next day we walked back along the track, then hitched back to town. After spending a day packing up our stuff, we took a bus back to blenheim on easter and helped cook a great meal. It's nice how we've been able to make it back to the vineyard for holidays.

I didn't stay in Blenheim for two long. On that thursday I took a bus down to Christchurch where I stayed for a week and half. I was practicing with the Christchurch ultimate team in preparation for the national tournament. I stayed with three American ultimate players for the week and had a great time there. I tried to repay them for their hospitality with my own, cooking whenever I could including two apple pies.

I flew up to Wellington on April 3rd and met Ashley's ferry arriving there. We checked into the hostel and the next morning headed to the fields. It was a cloudy morning and it didn't take long to start raining, which would continue throughout the day. My team started well, then lost two really close games to a team from Australia and one from Wellington. We somehow managed to pull out the last one despite being down 12-7 in a game to 13 and having 5 players out with injury. The next day we lost our first game to another australian. We won the next two, but only finished 5th which was disappointing. We did, however, win the spirit award. It was a little tough saying goodbye to everyone there, some of the best friends I've made in NZ, but the ultimate world is a small one and I wouldn't be surprised if we ran into each other down the line.

While I was in Christchurch they harvested the Sauvignon Blanc here at the vineyard. It was too bad I missed that one but we got back to Blenheim just in time for the harvest on Tuesday. There actually wasn't too much to do. The winery brings in the harvest crew so I mostly just took pictures. At the end of the day we went to the winery and watched some of the grapes being proccessed. It's amazing how fast it all happens.

Since then Ashley and I have been hanging out at the vineyard, helping with some jobs to get ready for pruning and getting ourselves ready to head home. We even did a practice pack and it looks like all of our stuff will actually fit in our bags(we'll see).

Hope to see everyone back in the states very soon,

Brian