Highland 6 Church College 7

The boys did not play well. It was a windy day and we didn't use that to our advantage. Hopefully we can pull out a win tomorrow against St. Kents. The 2nd and 1st XV both play tomorrow.

Kaituna Cascades River Rafting Group 2

Kaituna Cascades River Rafting Group 1

Highland vs. Liahona-Tonga

A quick note

I am just trying to upload all the pictures I have at the moment, and they are all jumbled in discs. You may have noticed, but most are out of order-just an FYI. Also, most of the shots were taken by Mike Christensen and we owe him a huge thank you. Fabulous...

The rest of our Tongan adventures :)

Highland 2nd XV-32 Hatu Petera-5...New Zealand 6/23/08

Highland 15 Wesley College 29

Sorry about the late post. The boys toughened up against one of the top four teams in New Zealand. We started the game off on a roll, going 10-0 quickly. The game was very close until about the last 5 minutes, where some mental mistakes cost us 2 quick trys, and Wesley's win. Wesley was very surprised by us, and even the ref was as well. The ref approached one of the parents before the game and told him that basically we were going to get wasted. Then after the game, he came up again and said that he has reffed Wesley's games for the past 3 years, including the one loss they have had in that time, and that no team has played them as hard as we did, and that we scored more points on them than any team. He also said that Wesley wasn't taking us seriously until after the first scrum and they were caught off guard with our toughness and we were ready to play. Coach Gelwix is very proud of the boys, especially for taking on one of the top teams in all of New Zealand and that we really could have and probably should have beat them. Congrats on a hard fought game boys...
Our next game is CCNZ on Saturday and hopefully I can get some more pics up before then.
We went white water rafting today and it was amazing. We went off the tallest (about 19 ft.) waterfall that is commercially allowed for paying groups. Awesome! I also have some pics from there I will try to post.
The boys are having a great time, everyone is safe, and I will try to keep you all more up to date...:)

Highland vs. Tonga High School

Here is a slide show from the game. If you want to see it a little better, you can click on the show and it should take you to Picasa web albums and play it there, if that doesn't work I hope you can see enough on here. We owe a huge thank you to the moms and dads who worked for many hours that night and each time after the games to scrub, wash, scrub, wash all the jerseys...

Ugh...

Well, we played Liahona and started out to a great, fast pace. We scored first and fast, twice. Then Liahona picked it up and we seemingly began to self distruct. Leka pulled his hamstring in the last play of practice the day of the game, and then we lost Jimmy again during the game to his hamstring injury. The final score was 29-19. We have yet to see the Highland Rugby we are used to, not that they aren't trying...We just aren't playing at our level. The boys made it safely to New Zealand and went immediate to Hatu Petera for a ceremony and the B side game. The second 15 won 5 trys to 1, so that was a little morale booster. We had Fo and Junior back from last year come and play because we have had quite a few injuries and needed some bodies. The boys just left down to Hamilton to Church College, and have been enjoying a bit more variety in food than they had in Tonga. The following slide show is from the first of the trip. It took a long time to upload these, but I am going to try to get the first game against Tonga High in the national stadium up tonight if I can. Oh and I am sorry about where it says the name of who posted the slide show, it only puts the first 3 letters of the name, so I will try to change that tonight so I'm not offending anyone :) That was definitely a surprise...

Better?

Well, I hope you all can now read the posts now. The boys will kick off today at 3:30...Keep your fingers crossed...

Exploring!

The boys are enjoying a few days off and exploring the island. We went to "Heaven on Earth" resort beach, and the boys got a little banged up on the reef's as the water came in. Not too bad though, and they loved it! Today we are on an island tour and saw blow holes, huge bats in a tree, then off to another beach and a program. We play Liahona tomorrow and will let you know what happens. We are still trying to get some pics up, so stay tuned! :)

Yes, we are alive!

Sorry it has taken so long to get info out, we have had some troubles with internet. Hopefully we can get some pictures up of our excursions... We made it here safely and are having a great time. The boys played Tonga High School and unfortunately lost 25-7 in the worlds muddiest game. We had many opportunities to score, but couldn't make it across the try line. Jimmy scored in the second half, but it was too little, too late. The boys played scared, a little nervous, and not many really showed the heart we are used to. We have the parents to thank for spending the game night scrubbing and re-scrubbing those new jerseys... We play Liahona on Wednesday, and hopefully the Highland Rugby we know will show up for the game. The boys are currently at the market, and then we are off to the beach. Everyone is having a great time, although the boys complain there isn't enough food and water...who really can keep a team full of teenage boys filled? We will try to keep you all more updated, but everyone is safe and well.