NEW ZEALAND HAULED FROM THE SEA BY A KITE! Though probably not in quite the way you expect- but please read on. A life-long and involuntary (this is my excuse anyway) obsession with kites and kite flying can’t easily be indulged by staying at home, especially if that home is in the town of Ashburton [...]
At the Cervia Kite Festival in 2009, I was ceremonially presented me with a Tee shirt by Klaus from Luxemburg labeling me, not entirely unfairly, as the “Master of Disaster”; see accompanying photo. I wore it with pride at every kite event after that for more than a year while offering it to other fliers [...]
This picture was taken in 1993 at Lake Clearwater in New Zealand. Peter is out on the ice with a Peel. These pictures below were taken just a few days ago at the same place. Peter and his son went out for R and R. He had this to say afterwards: Gidday, Some areas of NZ are reporting the coldest [...]
Going Fast on a Kite Buggy. 28th March ’10. I’m in a 777 somewhere above the Pacific, heading for the Mojhave desert at 1100km/hr to go buggying for a week (NABX 20th anniversary celebration of the development of the modern kite buggy). Yes, 1100km/hr; because there’s a tailwind of more than 300km/hr at this moment. [...]
I Blame the Chinese (At least it’s a change from blaming America).
Specifically: at 105 Alford Forest Rd, Ashburton New Zealand between the hours of 12noon and 12.30pm on Wednesday the 15th of October 2008, Tan Xi Bo and Wang Xiaping did fail to prevent one blue ultra light 8m Pilot kite from becoming irretrievably treed.
The facts are simple, and can’t be disputed (because I didn’t give them an opportunity). During the morning I’d launched the said kite and tied it off. Mr’s Tan and Wang, visiting from China, were flying some other kites in the same area (beside the kite factory) during this period. At 12 noon I went away for lunch, while they stayed and flew for a while longer. Shortly after I departed, the kite I’d left flying became irretrievably entangled in a tree. Clearly it was their fault – and they were late for lunch as well.
The tree kept a bit
The tree kept a bit