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!)

Well, I woke up on Saturday morning and decided to drive North and see where I ended up. So I packed the car with kites, a sleeping bag and an esky full of diet cokes and away I went. The North Island is easy to navigate really, there's one main road leading the way north and although I took a few diversions, there was never any danger of getting lost.

Just as well, as asking for directions could have been a nightmare!

 

I stopped to buy probably the biggest sandwich I have ever seen, check out the size of the bread on this thing. I was glad I only bought one.

 

 

I was determined to check out a place called "Shipwrecks" as I'd been advised it was a world class surfing spot. Unfortunately the surf was tiny when I got there, put the place definitely had potential and was very picturesque. Check it out

 

I quickly stopped on the way to check out "the whitest sand in the world" Unfortunately it's only accessible by boat so I had to view it from afar, but it was insanely white, the photo doesn't do it justice really.

 

 

 

I knew I was nearing my goal when I saw this sign.

 

90 mile beach is the last beach before Cape Reinga and it's just long and straight. Luckily the speed limit is quite high so it doesn't take all day to get anyway and it's actually faster to take the beach than the main road!

 

 

Proof that we're in the back country:

 

I got hungry, so went back on the road for a sandwich. Drove along a bit, booked in to a backpackers for later and proceeded down the North entrance to 90 mile. Boy, that was a bit different. You have to drive down a stream to get to the beach and although it's only ankle deep, it's great fun and long enough for you to have a great splash around in.

 

 

it's all worth it though, 90 mile beach is beautiful (and empty)

 

 

I had a quick attempt at a kite, but the wind proved fickle so I didn't have too much luck getting out the back. Good fun though. I then carried on up to the top.

There at last!

 

 

 

Well, thought I'd try a blog for a while. It's just like keeping a diary but I can point family and friends to it so they know what I'm up to :o)