Auckland - back to square 1, and onwards to Muriwai
waitingforthewind.com ... Note to self (while sat on the deck on Waiheke watching 9m wind): Always take kite gear, especially when staying at a beachhouse, regardless of complaints about space in the car.
Nice pic from Muriwai - this was epic. It's 45mins from Auckland on the wild west coast. I keep on reminding myself, you just gottta ring people ... you can spend 3hrs piss-arsing around on the internet, or call the local kiteshop and they'll tell you in two minutes where's good to go and what the issues are. Souwester, Muriwai's the go, will be gnarly out there but likely to be a few locals, kit up 2km south of the surf club, just past the golf course. I got that tingly feeling as I arrived, not from the customary double caffeine shot ahead of a cold session, but just from the sight of kites in the distance. 6m and 7m kites against my smallest which was a 9m. 50km long beach. Kite it a couple hours either side of LOW tide - - it's got a gentle sand slope so that way you get the MASSIVE waves out the back but there ends up being this nice flatwater close to shore. Weird to kite as the space was moving so rapidly, sometimes there was hundreds of meters of butter flat 1ft deep water, then the waves would come in and smash it all up. I got dumped on numerous times by misjudging breaking waves, and misjudging the depth of the water I was in. Really black sand so the water visability was pretty low. Friendly crowd out there on the water. I had a ball for my allocated 1hrs water time before we took the nephew & niece back home. All twimtips out there til one surfboard as I was leaving. 8 kiters at rush hour (5pm). 9m did me proud.
Pt Chev - "Got a nice little session in yesterday at Pt Chev (Point Chevalier) - logistics always a problem when staying with people and trying to go off for a kite - but KT was headed to the zoo so I got dropped & left which was good. Main spot is the motorway end. Two guys flailing with a 10m on the massive beach in almost no wind. And two blokes sat in their cars waiting for the wind. But oh yeah - in the distance - at the tip of the Point - I could see a kite flying, so I got my lift to there. Classic situation, wind far from ideal and people waiting around. Argentinian blooke was reading his book and only had a 9m. The German had a 12 but wanted to wait n see. I didn't have the luxury of time on my side, my lift returning in an hour or so, so I pumped up and off I went - impressing the "locals" with my 10kt wonders. That 12m Switchblade is such a good kite, even in light winds it stays upwind nicely.
The spot is shallow, slimy (slippy) but hard sandy bottom. There's really nice changing rooms. And a bus stop with direct buses to the city - this is a great spot to come if you are passing through Auckland. Wind was 10kt ish souwest gusty, off and on. I had 5 whole minutes powered properly though. Got a little cruise about round to see the sights of the city - Sky Tower and the bridge. And managed loads of backloop kiteloop things, and little jump with kiteloops, and downlooping and popping around. Nice little fun session. Two blokes teaching two a piece. This is a great spot to teach and to be a beginner."
