Rob and his two German backpacker friends came over to NZ for a while and we thought we should meet up. I offered to pick them up from the airport on Friday and go on a trip for the weekend.
Of course my car didn't start on Friday morning and after a quick panic, I managed to buy a new battery and everything was hunky dory.



Well, we set off on Sat morning and 5 hours later we arrived in the North. We had a quick look at the famous Shipwrecks (famous surf beach)



We then hit 90 mile beach and travelled up until we saw an awesome wave with a couple of surfers on it. Rob was very excited and it was a shame we didn't have any surf boards for him, but he got some great pictures



We stopped along the way to admire the scenary, including a car that had been on the beach for 6 weeks (according to one local) and we even found some wild horses. Wow.




Arriving at the far, far north end we stopped for a while for some sandboarding. A local Maori women hires out boards and was a great source of information about local spirits and spots. She even told us where to camp.










By this time it was getting late, so we made our way to the camp site and settled down for the night. We felt a bit guilty as one of the other campers moved when we setup next to him, but he just said he wanted to be isolated from people so what can you do?



The next morning we drove down to the beach, access is via a stream and it's great fun to drive through. Especially at speed! ;o)




Rob had the foresight to buy some rope and he even made a wakeboarding handle, so we decided to have a morning of car surfing. the girls hadn't done it before so it was a great experience all round.








Just as we were packing up and the tide was coming in, I again had car trouble! the battery was dead, again. Another quick panic and I was starting to wonder if I was going to lose another car to the sea when some fishermen turned up and gave us a jump start. Thank god. From this point on it was rolling starts and finding places to park on a hill was the order of the day.

We stopped to admire a shark on the beach, no idea what type it is but it looked cool (if a little dead  :o(  )




Finally, we headed home and after buying another battery to power the headlights (call me Mr Battery, I now have 3) we made it back ok. Then it was just a case of meeting up the following day to swap pictures and wish Rob & co well on their trip around the rest of NZ.

Well someone was good enough to take some photos of me whilst kitesurfing on Sunday!
I was out at Flat Island which is a good kiting spot to the East of Auckland that has flat water and is waist deep for miles and miles, excellent for beginners and learning new tricks. Sadly the wind was very gusty that day, but I still got wet!
Here's me just cruising


Here's me landing a double backroll (or a "flat back 7" according to one local. I just said "huh?")



Here's me after a fun session, folding my arms to try and hide my beer belly.


That's all for now!

Say hello to my new nephew, George Bateman, born on 6th Jan 2006.



Congratulations to Jac and James. Hurrah!

I celebrated New Years Eve in a slightly different way this year, but I think no one would be surprised to hear that I spent it on a windy beach! The predictions were awesome and I spent 4 days surfing the Auckland west coast in winds of 15 to 25 knots, mainly at Muriwai.

Muriwai is well known as a slightly wild spot, and I think the locals take a pride in that face.



There's 4WD access to the beach and just before you enter, you're reminded that sharks aren't the only thing you need to worry about!!




Nice.

Well, it was onto the beach and I don't think I ever saw more than 5 other kiters at a time on a beach which stretches for 50 km or so. The one problem is the black sand which, whilst amusing at first, is either dry and scaldingly hot or wet and sticks to everything like mud. Oh well, at least I'm spending most of my time in the water.

This is the main beach



Not especially crowded as you can see!

On Monday 2nd, the wind came in at 25 knots and brought a 6-8 foot swell with it! It was awesome, I think I can call it one of the best sessions I've ever had. There were a couple of people there with cameras but so far, I haven't been able to find any photos. :o(


Sunday was also good, I drove to the far end of Muriwai to a spot called Kaipara. It's a harbour mouth but has the flattest water I've ever kited on. Great fun.




Whilst there I finally found another kiter in a 4WD and had to tow him out of some deep sand. The beach is a little scary to drive on as you regularly hit quicksand and there are plenty of 4WD wrecks lying around to remind you that you can get into trouble very easily.

It's all worth it though, and now I'm back at work. Sore, tired, sunburnt but very, very happy  :o)

I'm working hard at the moment, but Merry Christmas to everyone!

Well I thought I'd post something since it's been a while since I went on this site. My arm is all healed up now and I'm back in the water  :o)
Not much else doing at the moment though, I've had a lazy week or so just relaxing and getting on with things. The wind has been on and off and I've managed to hit the water a couple of times with mixed results. (With usually the wind dying out as soon as I hit the water. Then I'm regaled by the other kiters about how good the last 2 hours were! Bah, I hate working 9 to 5! Time to start taking some long lunches I think ;o) )

Christmas is on it's way so I'm looking forward to a few days off. Hurrah!

Merry Christmas everybody!

After surviving the weekend kiting at "shark alley", I've finally been laid low by a slightly more humble creature. The oyster. Last night I was kiting at Meola Reef when I came unstuck doing a simple transition, catapulted over the front of my board and landed on a oyster.
3 stitches later and that's me off the water for 8 days  :o(

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)

I thought I'd do the write up for last weekend now despite having no photos. I'll post some as and when I get them.
Well, I went to Mambo in Merimbula for the weekend and what an eventful weekend it was. The Mambo is a kitesurfing competition held every year in Merimbula (on the border of NSW/Vic in Australia) and is generally a big excuse for a piss up. This year about 250 kiters and windsurfers descended upon the small town and had a big party.


I left work in Auckland at Friday lunch time and drove straight to the airport, big smile on my face in anticipation. I had a reality check at the check-in desk when the clerk told me I didn't have a visa! One long phone call to Canberra later and it turns out that my old working visa was still active when I applied for a holiday visa, then some enterprising person decided that since I held 2 visas it must be a scam of some sort, and cancelled them both!
I eventually got through to the gate, only to be told the plane was delayed by 2 hours because another flight had been cancelled and we had to wait to pick up the passengers from that flight!
I eventually made it to Sydney and surprise, surprise, was told I didn't have a visa by immigration. Another 20 minutes later and I finally picked up my bags and made it through to the car hire desk where I'd booked a car. Well blow me down if I didn't have problems again and was unable to pick up a car. At this point I finally lost my temper a bit and caught a taxi to my old house whilst I figured out what to do, the car hire man's suggestion of getting a train didn't really help my temper much.
I stayed the night in Manly and the following morning managed to catch the 2pm flight to Merimbula (thanks to Caroline for giving me a lift to the airport) and finally made it to my destination at 4pm, about 24 hours after I started the journey.

It was great to finally catch up with my old mates and see what everyone had been up to, of course I'd missed some awesome wind on the Friday although Saturday had been windless.
Several beers later, after a quick, nasty Malaysian meal, I made it to the pub and got into the Mambo spirit.

The following morning, nursing a small hangover, I went down to the beach with Mark and went out in some of the gustiest and nastiest wind I've flown in for a while. It was fun, but most of it was about survival and staying upwind. Of course there was a few who were thriving in the conditions and ripping up some waves. In fact it was bizarre to see a competition where very few people were doing jumps at all, Mambo is a wave riding competition and as such most people were on surf boards.

The day came and went and Mark and I decided to head home before the presentation, Mark was generous enough to offer me a spot in his car to get back to Sydney in return for sharing the driving. It was nice to have someone to chat to on the way back and the time seemed to pass really quickly and before I knew it, we were back in Manly.

One snooze later and Mark was nice enough to give me a lift to the airport at 7am and after another delay, I was finally back in Auckland. Phew.

It was an exhausting weekend and rather expensive (we calculated it cost me $10 per minute I was on the water kitesurfing) but it worth it to catch up with friends and see how everyone is doing.

Can't wait for next year! (But I think I'll book a bit more time off, work allowing)

Steve and Tara invited me up to Pipiwai for "The Burning" which is a Hangi that Steve has held every year for the last 10 years. It's a massive event and around a hundred people turned up for a weekend of booze, music and fun.


It was all masterfully done, and even the toilet was more than just a pit in the ground. One slight oversight was putting it next to an electric fence and I can now testify that electric fences really bloody hurt. (Twice)





I was lucky enough to catch a lift with Clare who had managed to bag a big 4WD from work. She works for Ford and nabbed a Courier with only 9000km on the clock and a full tank of petrol, woot, woot. Feel that 4litre V6!!!


After a few beers on the first night (and the introductory can of Lion Brown, a bloody awful beer that should be banned), we woke up the following morning and went for a 4WD. Feeling a bit worried about the car, Clare made me drive which I was pretty pleased about ( I didn't mention my 4WD record to date, what she didn't know won't hurt). What we didn't expect was one of Steve's cousins to leap in the car with us, little 11yr old Marcella who I'd like to nickname Miss Doom and Gloom. There wasn't an obstacle that Marcella thought I could handle and everywhere I drove, I had a little voice behind me saying "You'll never make that" or "You're doing that wrong". Luckily it was another driver, Smithy, who came to grief first (mainly because he was in the lead car) and his car had to be winched out of a muddy creek.






We finally made it back to base camp to discover we'd missed the digging of the Hangi pit (darn) and they had already laid all the food and covered it again.
So, with a few more arrivals we decided to hit the 4WD tracks again, only this time Clare was forced to drive. I was quite chuffed when Doom and Gloom Marcella climbed into our truck again, but this time she was quite optimistic the whole way around. "We're better drivers than they are" and "That's easy to make" were heard from the back of the car this time. I could almost be insulted and imagine that it was the change of driver that changed Marcella, but I'm convinced it was more to do with her cheering up in the sun. Ahem, ahem.






We made it back in time for the digging up of the Hangi and what a beautiful smell it was. The food was cooked to perfection!





Steve then welcome everyone present to the Burning and once again reiterated that everyone had to have a Lion Brown upon arrival! Note that Tara actually sewed his outfit together out of sacks, you'd never guess!



Luckily he blended in, there was a plethora of glamourous types at the Burning and I was only too glad to fit in.










And I partook in some traditional Kiwi customs as well. Well, when in Rome!




Now all we needed to do was sit down, have a beer and sing a few songs around the fire. Bliss!








I had an absolutely awesome weekend and I am looking forward to the next one in March to celebrate Steve's birthday. Hopefully this time I won't set off any fireworks into the crowd (sorry guys) and I can take my own 4WD to wreck (sorry Clare!)