Hi
I'm from AUSTRIA and I' m going to visit NZ first time in two weeks. ( for 5 weeks). And i 've no idea which kite sizes i should take with me ( I' ve 65kg and i don't need to kite each day cause I also wanna see the country...) Is it enough to bring 8 and 12 with me?
I also don't know about the temperatures that time of year... is it enough to bring my shorty and a long sleeve neopreneshirt with me or should i take a long wet suit??? I'm trying to save weight because of the plane... - but i also wanna go kiting on south island
Would be perfect i f anyone would mail me the name of some good places to meet kiters in Nz Maybe in auckland cause that's where I'm starting my tour....
Cu on the water and thx alot
Robert
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hi mo.


yeah man an 8 and a 12 will be sweet as for auckland for someone of your weight. Get in touch with some of the locals as they can point out the best spots. Auckland can be a difficult place to kite in as conditions vary so much from beach to beach and the traffic makes it no fun getting around. As for temperature.... you definately won't need a long wettie in Auckland, infact on some days you won't even need a springsuit.

The South Island is very windy at this time of year and you'll be using your 8 heaps, especially if you visit the far south where it may even be too windy for the 8. For more imfo you can check out the metservice website... (metservice.co.nz?) where it will show you the current wind conditions, weather, temp etc for certain areas of the country...

enjoy your trip!

thx @ trasher
is there a big scene in auckland? easy to find ???

Ok i 've to go kiting now! In austria we 've 7 bft, minus 5 degrees celsius air and plus 2 degr. water temp. :twisted: So that's why i 'm lookin forward to my NZ trip !!!

The 7bft doesn't sound too bad.

there seem to be 2 major groups of kiters in auckland. The biggest group is up north and a smaller less experienced group resides out east. Auckland's traffic ensures that the 2 groups don't mix often. Auckland's so called "kitebeach" is Orewa which is 40 minutes drive north of the city. The main reason it's called "kitebeach" is because anabatic is located there. Great kiteshop and a dude called Lee will hopefully give ya some pointers on where to kite... but don't kite at Orewa.

Either that or head out east to the nice and laid back and uncrowded places with no arrogant locals. If you head out east to spots like Eastern Beach, Bramley, Pine Harbour etc there is a reasonably chance of bumpin into me or any of the guys i kite with.

check out kitebeaches.com and look up NZ and you'll see most of Auckland's main kiting spots.

Whats wrong with kiting at Orewa Mr Thrasher???

nothing wrong at all with kiting at Orewa... just warning against the temptation to kite there on a hot summers day with the beach packed. We don't want kiting being banned from kitebeach now do we?

In 25 knots NE the place rocks but in 25 knots the only people at the beach are kiters and poleys so no problems with locals (well except for local kiters of course :twisted: ).

I suspect that someone is smarting from a more crowded than expected spitty session on Sunday? Am i to blame for that? Well considering that the sandspit has ALLWAYS been crowded my answer would have to be NO i am NOT to blame. Maybe you should have gone to Pine Harbour instead as there was only 4 kiters there including aklbob and it was a solid 20 knots? :wink:

ooh who's looking for a fight !
To be honest, I've never had sandspit crowded, unless it's by my own doing, lots of organisation !

It was mint conditions on Sunday at PH, everyone was on 12's and powered, I sat at watched for a bit, mint PH conditions, no intervalling which means Sandspit was probably gusty as hell, but rideable as the estuary warps the wind down it a bit.. but hey the flat water makes up for that!

Don't think I could have had anymore fun than I did at the Sandspit, absolute epic session, still grinning!
Had the place to myself for over an hour anyways so no issues there.

Plus its great to ride with more skilled kiters, far more challenging and great fun to push that little bit xtra!

Don't want to turn into a little Eastern hermit now do we?? lol.

I'm of the opinion that if the kiters joined together we could get swimmers/picnickers and other pain in the arses banned from the more popular spots.
Just take a look at ski lanes for example.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Lets face it, its for their own safety!

Must admit though, jumping over moving objects in the water really helps me to time my jumps better!
Plus the screams all add to the rush!

PS... thanks for the invite to kite at PH though Mr Thrasher.

Where's mista thrasher been anyway, seems very loud on the forum, yet so completely amiss from the beaches !!

Can I throw some fuel on the fire, and say that Orewa rocks for wave riding?

I might even add that thrasher's waveriding attempts on 5 cm chop at Eastern can't really be called wave riding....




feck yas!

and a big FARRRK YAS to ya both! :twisted:

I've been checkin out the goss on northNZkite and so far i've refrained from sayin my bit.

Yeah gotta admit jumpin over objects does add to the fun. I remember the good ol days when that boat was berthed in the middle of Eastern and Blewett was railgrinding the damn thing. Now eastern is void of objects.... so Joel now decides that moving ones are better. Pity that dude didn't walk on over that time and give ya some words Joel... that would have fun to watch.

I'd be very impressed if we were able to get swimmers banned from beaches... dunno if it's ever been done before... it's allways the other way round as we are outnumbered 100 to 1. Then again PH and Imapotato Rd aren't exactly known swimmin holes now are they? If you like objects to jump over Joel there is allways Mairaitai with it's 2 juicy wharves to jump over or railgrind. Also Te Puru park still has that large branch embedded in the shallows, sorta similiar to that one i was jumpin over at Bramley last year... of course the sandspit has the sandspit but someone needs to actually starty jumpin it further along where you can pull a deadman over the trees, now that WOULD be styley.

I don't get out at all now. Workin every day but I'm enjoyin seein all those new photos poppin up... lookin good. Hey Joel no chance at all for me and Cairns next winter but Western OZ in a couple of years maybe Tim?

Hmmm I dont think banned is the word you want to use here Mr Thrasher, contained in a swimmers safety zone might be more acceptable to all those concerned.
A case in point, as far as Im aware, and I will double check this next time Im there, Both St Heliers and Kohi Beaches? have designated swimming areas to keep said slow moving objects out of everyone elses way.

This system probably needs policing to stop them from straying into our area of operations and damaging my board.
Perhaps some type of swimmers cap with a REG number on it?? Lol.
Infact it could be a really strong encouragement for swimmers to stay between the life guards flags step outside and your fair game to anyone.

In some ways its a shame we dont have a few more bities around, that way we could put all the swimmers in nets where they belong and really clean up the beaches for those of us with the true addiction.

With a little support and some thinking out of the box we too could have a designated launch area for our kites and a clear lane for leaving and returning to the beach.

Lets face it though, this is only really an issue when the conditions are marginal and your probably better off sinking a few beers rather than taking your kite for a walk. Which we could do if they hadnt already put an alcohol ban in place on most beaches!

See - if you dont do unto others first you end up with someone else version of a good idea!

Sorry a small correction ...

meant to say "dont think banned is the word you or I want to use here"

i like ur vibe, u dont c us kittin in swimin pools, but maybe parnell baths on a n/w could work so that might not be a goer. :twisted: