Here is a guest commentary from Canadian Wheelchair Rugby National Team athlete, Mike Whitehead, from London, Ontario:

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Hello From Christchurch, New Zealand.

After a long day of flying we made it here safely and with all of our equipment.  It has taken a couple of days to get used to the time difference, as Eastern Standard Time is 17 hours behind us — nothing a couple of great naps can' t fix.  Christchurch is a city of about 300,000 and is beautiful.  It is Spring time here and the trees are budding and the All Blacks are playing in the World Cup of Rugby.  Everyone is excited about their team and it seems the local television has 24-hour coverage of rugby.  The weather is hit or miss.  Before we got here they had three days in a row of mid 20's but the temp has dropped a little since we arrived.

Our first day of competition is Wednesday and we are playing two games a day on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Saturday, hopefully, we will be playing the other Canadian team "the Nordiques" in the finals.  There will be some stiff competition here with the US, Great Britain and New Zealand, who all have solid teams.  There is a web site where you can follow the daily events of the tournament — check it out: www.nz2003.blogspot.com

Kerri and I are excited about traveling around the south island of New Zealand for a week starting Sunday.  Until then it's all rugby baby......

We will take lots of pictures..... So long from down under mate!

— Mikey —