Long ol' ride/holiday/location report for you ...
Just got back from NZ ... went home for the Xmas hols, from December 23 to January 9. I insisted that if I was going to spend 18 hours (one way!) in a
cattle car, I had to be able to take my kite gear ...
Arrived on the 22nd in the very P.M. then the next day, the quakes started all over again
not my fault, swear!
Gear
Filled my North 160cm kitebag with the Flydoor, Flyradical, 13 & 16m Crossbows, bar/pump/harness/wetsuit etc ... it weighed just under 32kg and we
paid US$100 for excess baggage charges on Korean Air. I put the S3 21 in my check-in :D
Board rental in NZ would have been NZ$35 a day and kite/board combo about $130 ... so it was cheaper to take my own gear
plus no hassle about picking stuff up.
We were there for 16 days in total and I got in 10 sessions!
Can't remember exactly, but I think I used the S3 4 times, the 16m 2 or 3 and the 13 for the rest ... there was some overlap as the wind dropped or
picked up too.
Obviously the 21 is paying for itself rapidly. I'm thinking that the 16m is a bit superfluous ... the 13 is the shizzle though! And there were 2 days
that I think I would have been happier on my 10 :o If I could do it over, I'd take the same boards and swap the 16m Xbow for the 10 ... if I could
change my quiver, I think I'd get rid of the 16, 13 and 10 and get a 14 and 11 instead ... hmm.
Location
I went to the beach only one day then spent the rest of my time at the estuary - as seen in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K8x37KO1SU
Got no video of my own cos I left the GoPro at home and the wife didn't want to film
OMG flat water is the bomb! The local free-stylers were moaning about the chop but compared to what I'm used to, it was mirror-flat! Waiting for the
tide to come in was a bit of a chore and the liquifaction from the quakes left little hillocks in the bay that made odd shallow spots but apart from
that ... awesome!
There's a separate carpark for the kite/windsurf boys and next to it, there's a big ol' grass park for rigging.
Heh ... just looked it up in google maps and there's even guys setting up kites there! And riding
awesome!
http://g.co/maps/fy5fh
If you go to 'street view' you can see what it looks like when the tides out ... oh cool - distance tool! 800m tacks were what I was doing most of the
time, it seems! Nice to know
The little beach is like, smooth river stones and the estuary is icky mud with stuff in it - weeds, shells, crabs, fish and a few bird things ... you
sink in the mud a bit and there's sharp things in there - I got a few cuts on my feet but nothing serious. When the tide is right in, it's only about
mid-thigh deep on average - there's shallower spots a couple of deeper channels too but you can walk from one end to the other if you have gear
failures (see below).
The estuary is good for about 2 hours before high tide and maybe 3 after ...
OTOH the actual beach at the ocean beach, is good anytime, although high-tide means you'd have to self-launch/land your kite from the water - maybe.
Wave riders would enjoy the ocean there - when the wind is up, you get good surfing waves. And it's a long-ass beach so you'll never run out of space!
Wind & weather
Summer in NZ is
cold. I needed my 3/2mm wetsuit :o
Got a couple of evenings of light rain but was mostly cloudy or sunny ... got sunburnt a few times, despite lashing of sun-block :ticking: UV is
strong in NZ!
Wind from the east and north is good and clean, and picks up speed over the water towards the end of the day.
Wind from the south and east is ride-able but gusty and punchy (and shifty!) due to the hills south of the estuary. We didn't get any westerlies.
I got totally skunked only one day and another day I packed it in cos I was only holding ground on the 21 ... the rest of the time was good for the 21
or 13 and as I said, a couple of days I was over-powered on the 13
so quite a
variety. The locals had 12, 10 and 8m quivers FWIW ...
Wind was mostly cross-onshore to the little beach so it was easy to get out, but for half of your tack you had nothing but the road downwind of you
... I dropped the 21 and thought I'd broken a mixer when it relaunched so I self-rescued but I was way the hell out the other end there away from the
beach so was walking back when a guy I'd been chatting too gave me a lift in his car. Bit of an exercise getting the Speed out of the water, up and
over the 6 foot stone wall without wrapping up cars on the road just a couple of feet from the edge of the water :o would have been a long trudge back
otherwise ... saw a few people rescue themselves by wrapping up lines and walking the kite in so it's doable
Thoughts
Best sessions were over-powered on the 13 but the 21 still shines as a fabulous kite for free-riding - big long jumps and lots of hang-time for
rotations!
Needed both my boards for sure - the 'door often came in very handy ...
Much easier riding the bottom end of kite wind ranges when the water is flat
The Flysurfer impressed the locals no end :D the price converted to NZ dollars freaked them out though
Great spot for a kiting holiday!
Yeah... I got a kite. Or two...
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