This place kicks ass... yet to find anything that's better. Not many people know where it is.... interesting as it's a quite a lot better than the normal west facing kiting spots. Look in your maps and you will find it... As for the "guest" who says he has found way better and easier to get to spots. Show me the spots...... :twisted: :twisted:

You guys want flat water, you guys want it shallow for ages, you guys want it nice and open, you guys want consistant wind... you guys want all of this even when having to deal with Auckland's prevailing direction.... WSW? This is the place....

Mark T

I have searched on Wises.co.nz and it cant find that name. IS that the correct spelling ?

Were about in East Auckland?

It's not in East Auckland.... it's the closest thing to leaving for another country... and i ain't talking about kiting conditions either... something else more literal... if you are clever enough you will figure it out. :twisted:

I'm guessing its somewhere near the airport?

Right you are........ Infact it's the road just before the Airport. but it's 3km to the side of the runaway so no issues with planes etc.

Dude lets get serious, I poleboarded this spot 15 years ago. Its nice at high tide when the wind in, gets steady summer afternoon thermals but gets shallow pretty quick after the tide. You get 2-3 hours max either side of the tide (granted kiting needs less water) and then there are the mystery bombers you cant see. Otherwise it stinks from rotten seaweed and around the corner is the Mangere poo ponds. 15 years ago I also poleboarded onehunga regularly-much better than Ihumateo Rd IMHO and would be great kiting up behind the massive sandbar at the top of the inner harbour but there are no launches that I can find for kites. One day i will try walking my kite kit across the reserve above the yacht club and see if I can find a launch but the water quality is bad. There are "no swimming" signs all around the inner manukau these days. If you really dig the Manukau try Big Bay on a low tide offshore SW or a mid tide NW. Just be sure to have a rescue if you break a line-the tide is strong.
Dont get me wrong I'm sure IR is OK but its not kiting paradise.
Slyde :wink:

Hey slyde alot of us guys out east and south Auckland are hopin to try out the Manukau Harbour during the summer. We wanna hook up as many spots as we can. We have many spots lined up. Ihumateo Rd in my opinion is a very good kiting spot, it doesn't stink at all and to be honest if the winds rockin i don't really give a rats ass if there's shit and crap everywhere. When I was there something was decomposing, clears the sinuses.

Anyway I'm interested in checking out those spots that you say are really good. To be honest I wouldn't actually rate Ihumateo Rd as a very good windsurfing spot, too shallow really, and the wind is lighter and steadier than most spots in similiar conditions... this does not suit windsurfing but suits kiteboarding so long as it's 15 or over. The thermals are the reason why i'm so interested in the Manukau Harbour but for real thermal action I'm gonna head all the way out to Huia as the SSW get's right in there and it looks pretty nice in the mid summer heat. Is it true that Onehunga beach is getting a facelift. I'm also interested if anyone has kited GreenBay or Blockhouse Bay BCH.... not to mention any other spots in the Manukau.

No idea about onehunga beach. I doubt that they can make it kiteable there. Biggest problem is the high tension overhead cables down by the wharves-you need to be way up the other end of the inlet (by the big sandbar) to be safe, but theres only rocks and a lousy boatramp there-its a recipe for wrecked gear, and the Hillsborough side beaches arent up to a launch either-not to mention the no swimming signs.
Most of us burnt out old poleboarding farts (like me) checked out all these old spots years ago so have returned to find a few that are OK. Green bay is OK but not a great launch and crap water quality. If you live east then you should check out the Firth of Thames. Theres a new Regional Park about 5 mins around the point from Orere point that faces South. Wouldnt work in a SW but in S or SE gets a nice little swell and a nice beach. I've never tried it in Summer but I bet the SW Thermal bends around in the Firth to make it more S. Worth a look if you live that way.
BTW you should realise that the West coast (Manukau) Thermal runs up the Manukau harbour, over the small isthmus at the top of the Tamaki river and than out past Bucklands beach, so the best SW thermal spot in Auckland is the Tamaki spit. It has the strongest SW sea breeze in Auckland. This fact has been substantiated many times. Point Chev gets the same phenomenon but to a lesser extent and is way gustier.
If you are gonna drive all the way around the Manukau then you might as well go to Muriwai and catch a little surf too.
Later
Slyde

Hey slyde I know all about the Tamaki Estuary man... I live out that way... and yes the Sea Breeze there is awesome when it properly comes... out east we call it the Tamaki Doctor and at full throttle it's well over 20 knots. Unfortunately a lot of the time it doesn't quite make it out this far as it runs into resistance from the much lighter Northerly Thermal that develops. Then what happens is that it get very dark overhead and in the convergance zone there is no wind at all. The sandspit cranks like there's no tomorrow in the TD though, flat water, fully fully powered on a 12. However Bramley is also a ripper in that breeze... great thing about Bramley is that you can kite the N thermal in midday and then when that croaks and it get's black just chill on da beach and wait for the TD to come (oh yes and rig a much smaller size kite as well).

However I'm still a fan of goin out to a beach like Huia at about midday or early arvo and being greeted with whitecaps without having to witness the battle of the thermals. As for Muriwai I've allways wondered about the actaul west coast in regards to the Sea Breeze. How strong does it get on a typicial summers day there becuase it'll have to be quite strong as we all know big kites and waves don't mix too well... especially west coast waves!!!

Sounds great ... mite check it out one day... however I'd probably keep it for those SE days that we all dread :twisted:

Thanx Slyde... hey man what kite do you fly??? So I can recognise you out on the water...

so blownaway how many times have you kited at Im...rd?

Only kited there once so far as i'm usually stuck out east due to my job (yes i do have one by the way!!). However i know a few guys that have kited there in a different mix of conditions (ie Thermals, WNW, strong westerly etc) and they love it. I only plan on going there on the very rare occasion as it is a bit of a sod to get to.

Hmmm I see

As yet I haven't found a better flat water spot for W and WSW winds...... if you guys have found something better I'm all ears.

I have heard of a secret Lagoon up by Muriwai.... but can it be accessed by car?

Hey there.
Was a good session at IR last night (personally my best yet!).
Four kiters and a lovely constant breeze of 12 - 15kts. It suited my 12meter and 162cm board perfectly and believe it or not I actually managed to go up wind!! The water is warm in the Manukau.
Will probably head to IR again today...

way to go keeping the spot secret Blownaway..!!

Seeing as the lid has been blown on this place, I might as well tell everyone the full story.
The wastewater treatment plant out in the manukau harbour has been completely redesigned and as such the sewage ponds have now been opened up, and some land to the south of the treatment plant has been reclaimed and turned back to white sand beaches. This happened over a year ago and was announced in the newspaper. They declared the water safe for swimming(south of the large island out there, due to the improved treatment of sewage. All the beaches south of the harbour have always been cleaner than out by the yacht club there (where all the rocks and huge tidal currents are. which is indeed shit for kiting, esp if you screwed up and ended up downwind, in the pylons.)

Obviously someone's keen on keeping their name a secret as well :wink:

not at all...
Hey the more kiters the better out that way.. lots of good spots for the prevailing wind..

Huia.. Kaiterakihi..Armour Bay .. Laingholm .. Blockhouse bay all rock for kiting! little hard to get out and back in sometimes.. Laingholm has opposing wind either side of the ridge... so practice your paddling! and gotta watch those High voltage lines at Blockhouse bay .. the s/w thermal sucks down the west side of the harbour.. enjoy it!

Ihumateo is flat, shallow water for ages but is not as windy as places like Huia. Huia is another real good spot, nice water conditions at high tide, very safe too. Windier and gustier than Ihumateo Rd in the same weather.

Also at Ihumateo Rd reports of cows trying to rape parked cars... some people i've spoken to complain about the smell of the place... it's not that blinkin bad. For those of you who are used to kiting in gusty locations you will be pleasently surprised that lot's of Manukau Harbour spots are very open and hence very smooth winds. I believe that as kiting grows here in Auckland it will only be a matter of time before these kiting spots get more and more popular... the challenge for us as kiters is to be well behaved and take care of our beaches and leash our bitches so they don't run off and start slapping up any bystanders (I'm taking about our kites by the way!!!). We don't have to be like other places where kiting is banned. Besides you don't really wanna have a runaway kite at this spot as the airport isn't that far away. :?

Whoever moans about this spot hasn't kited there!!