Monday, January 29, 2007

Sports Camp & Parachute

Friday I drove down to Totara Springs and joined in with the Young Life team for Sports Camp. Camp staff put me in this team as I knew no one that was going. But it was the perfect team for me. First most of the teams were island teams and I'm just a skinny white boy from the south island but the Young Life team had no islanders in it. Second Ed Roper was one of the team leaders. I worked with Ed at Kamp Kanakuk back in 2000! So that was pretty crazy! God put me in that team for sure! Was a pretty cool weekend, despite losing soccer semi in a shootout and getting hammered in volleyball! I came 6th in the 3.3km cross country so was pretty happy about that. Our girls came 2nd, 3rd, and 4th! Our soccer team was pretty awesome but our semi was against the other good team in camp. Nil all at full time meant a shootout. Our first penalty was a miss and then everyone on both teams put the rest in. I took our last shot and put it in in my usual spot! The keeper didnt even move for my kick--had no chance!! We realised at the end of the camp when we saw the total points that by winning the soccer and then one other final such as the mens hockey (where we felt the referree robbed us by disallowing a goal) we could have got enough points to win the whole camp overall! We finished 4th out of 11 teams and runner up in the sportsmanship award. Our girls won hockey and indoor soccer and us boys won indoor hockey. We also won lawn bowls and one hole golf. We came runner up in mens hockey, softball, girls indoor hockey, cross country, and kayaking. Ken Youngson, founder of Quantum Sports was the speaker and challenged us to guard our hearts. Our hearts are so important as athletes. If our hearts are in the right place our sporting performance will be better. Also met Eroni Clarke--he gave his testimony.
Saturday night I drove over to Mystery Creek to attend Parachute for the evening. Met up with some Nelson mates and saw a bit of the Lads with Kristian playing with them. Hung out with Chevy (Kristian and Chevy got married last weekend in Nelson and I missed the wedding). Then watched Rebecca St James in her first ever Parachute performance. She played a mixture of her older and new songs and even included "Wait For Me"!! Thousand Foot Krutch followed her on Mainstage but were a little dissappointing with the lead singer seemingly without much voice--could hardly hear him. He also had nothing much to say between songs. They used a kiwi guitarist for the first time also--dunno where their guitarist was. The song "Absolute" sounded good tho.
Was a cool weekend and made some good mates from the Young Life team. Nelson sports camp is just as good--less sports and less people but the food is way better at Teapot Valley!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Crazy month

The Pro Beach Tour for 2007 is over! Boxing Day we left Nelson in the Biopaints WRX and drove to Auckland. 2 days there and picked up Sara and her Mom from Vanuatu and then Tiffany from USA. Drove to Tauranga for beach tournament. Check out the new website for Anna & Bella for more details on the trip. We drove 4000kms in just over 3 weeks, in Wellington my car window got smashed and a couple of small things got stolen. I played at the Matarangi tournament with average results--can't expext much better with a new partner who was a young guy fairly new to the beach. I really want to play the whole tour next year and if can get paid to referee I may quit being a sandy and just play and ref next year. In Auckland last week we finally got better weather after a lot of wind and overcast days and even some rain. Had a great finish to the tour. I now have my new laptop and it is soo good! Tomorrow I am off to sports camp at Totara Springs for my first time which should be great. And Saturday night I will go to Parachute to see Rebecca St James and Thousand Foot Krutch play. Should be a great weekend. Also this week I was approved for my visa to the USA so the plan is to head over there the first or second of March. I am already doing work for my camp by recruiting staff for the summer. I can't wait to head over but first I will have about 3 more weeks in Nelson. Sarah and Tiffany flew back out this week and so did Anna and Bella so its just me left here now! I can't handle the mosquitos at my parents place when I'm trying to sleep so tonite I'm at my sisters house!! Lol this blog is jumping all over the place. Just brought 230 bales of hay in tonite for Dad. It's so hot! Off to shower and bed.