I had a trip down to Raglan over the weekend to scope out the supposedly consistent kitesurfing spot there. Raglan is basically a surfing/tourist destination on the west coast about 2 hours south of Auckland. The benefit of kiting at Raglan is that there is a harbour mouth that is extremely tidal and as such, if you can time the right current direction with the consistent summer sea breeze then you're in business.

I did the usual and had a scope around first, Raglan is a really pretty village and the people were extremely friendly and fun. The main surfing break at Manu beach looked nice and had potential, but the surf was extremely small.


With the obligatory photo with some statue or other, I made my way to the harbour mouth or "shark alley" as my work mates call it.


I arrived just in time to see a couple of locals being carried out to sea by the extremely stong current in the harbour mouth. They'd both managed to drop their kites and had no chance of relaunching them in the current. Luckily one of them managed to swim to the south harbour head but the other guy was swept about a half a mile out to sea and had to make his way back from there!

Well I was a little apprehensive after this, but after watching some other locals for a while I gathered my courage and went for it, and thank god I did, it was fantastic. The wind was only 6-8 knots but with a 6 knot opposing current I had no trouble staying upwind, and enjoyed myself so much that I started practicing some tricks, I am now the kiteloop master! (in 6 knots of wind)