30th August 2009: Kitesurfing Lesson Four

It's my last weekend in NZ and I was supposed to be packing up the flat. The weather this morning was good though, so I couldn't resist one last kitesurfing lesson before I head back to the start of a UK winter.

The wind was a bit light early on, and I was stuggling to get moving. When you're learning you tend to drift downwind as you're trying to get going, and then you have to trudge back up though waist deep water with a massive kite pulling you the other way. That isn't much fun.

The wind filled in a bit later, and you know what? I can now kite surf! I was able to blast back and forth quite a few times and even stay upwind. The feeling, when you get it right, is truly awesome. You lean back against the power of the kite and just fly. It's amazingly fast, and almost effortless. The only comparison I can make is that it's a bit like sailing a fast dinghy with a big spinnaker up - I guess that's why spinnakers are often called "kites".

I definitely need to get more into this sport when I get back to the UK...

If anyone's reading this and looking for kitesurfing instruction in the Auckland area, I would definitely recommend Reuben at Wings & Waves.

9th August 2009: Kitesurfing Lesson Three

I had another kitesurfing lesson on Sunday. This time I managed to stay upright for decent periods and almost stay upwind, quite a big improvement on last time.

I'm definitely getting the hang of it. The speed you can travel at is quite amazing. I'd guess it's 15-20 knots (fast over water), but when you get it right it's almost effortless - the harness takes all the load and you just blast along.

The most important thing I learnt this time is that you really have to watch the kite the whole time, not your feet. Otherwise, the kite crashes and shortly afterwards you crash too, usually resulting in sea water imbibage.

Kitesurfing has quite a reputation for being a dangerous sport, but having done it a few times I reckon it's actually probably safer than, say, snowboarding. As I understand it, the design of the kites made some big steps forwards a few years ago - the newer bow kites can be completely de-powered by simply letting go. It's clearly possible to get yourself in trouble, but following the safety instructions you get from lessons probably makes it pretty safe.

21st June 2009: Auckland Museum

Having been to the Auckland Museum some months ago, we went back to finish it off at the weekend. We didn't quite manage that but have now explored the majority of it. This time we split up so that Tim could spend more time looking at dinosaurs and volcanoes while I meandered around the design section.

Tucked away among the war displays on the top floor, there is a reconstruction of shops from the Auckland of 1866. We were fascinated by a reproduced advertisement for a ship offering passages from St Catherine's Dock in London to New Zealand. Each passenger was allowed to bring ¼ to ½ a ton of luggage, which we thought generous compared to airline allowances today - until we read that a ship's ton was defined as 40 cubic feet, making the luggage allowance around 2 large suitcases.

14th June 2009: Kitesurfing Lesson Two

I had my first kitesurfing lesson a couple of weeks ago. My ambition this time was to get up onto the board. I managed that, but I've got a very long way to go until I can call myself competent!

I had to spent another hour or so body-dragging myself around behind the kite before the instructor let me have a go with a board too. I thought that I was getting pretty good at flying the thing (hey, it's just a kite!) but once you've got to think about flying the kite as well as balancing yourself on the board, things get a little trickier. You could say I was a touch over confident.

After a few face-plants (it's only water), I managed a few times to stay on the board for around 10 seconds before stacking it. Mostly I was alternating between sinking and being launched skywards, not quite how I remember those guys on the videos doing it. It seems you've got to get the kite maintain a smooth power delivery, without really looking at it. Not easy.

While I was drinking seawater, the instructor was teaching the more advanced students how to jump. He could effortlessly lift himself 5m into the air, before landing and blasting off in a different direction. And he made it look so easy!

17th May 2009: Kitesurfing

I've been meaning to have a go at kitesurfing for years and I thought that, coming to Auckland for a year, I'd finally get the chance to have a go. You see lots of people doing it on the beaches around here, and the conditions are great: warm water, regular sunshine and lots of wind. As it happens it wasn't until Fred said he'd tried it that I finally organised it, with the weather here having turned distinctly autumnal.

The place we went for lessons is on the South coast of the Manukau harbour and has a huge deserted area of waist-deep water. Perfect for learning to be dragged at speed by an enourmous kite. They look big when you see people using them, but they look even bigger when you're attached to one. We've been playing with a 3 square-metre trainer kite for a while, but there's a big step up to the 8m kitesurf kites.

The first lesson is all about learning to control the kite and getting used to the power by "body-dragging" without a board. I got on okay with this so hopefully next time I go I'll get on the board and do some kitesurfing proper.

10th May 2009: Surfing at Muriwai Beach

Mel and Dom returned to Auckland for the last few days of their holiday in NZ, so we spent the weekend with them.

Our travellers had tried surfing at Raglan on their first full day in the country and wanted another attempt. I hadn't managed to try surfing at all yet, despite it being a bit of a kiwi national sport, so I tagged along too. We headed out to Muriwai with two of my accomplished surfer-dude colleagues: James and Ken.

It seems to me that surfing is about spending a lot of time and effort battling out through waves, to be launched briefly back towards the beach. If it goes well you get a short bit of speed and exhiliration, otherwise you seem to drink a lot of seawater. Mostly, it goes badly.

I actually managed to stand up quite a few times (I surfed!) and it was good fun. I might go again!

After the surfing we flew the power kite for a while in the strong breeze, though still not strong enough for blokarts, annoyingly. Sophie's now fixed the kite twice, after we smashed it into the ground during some over-excited and under-skilled flying.

We finished off the day with some large and very delicious steaks at The Jervois Steak House, our favourite restaurant in Auckland. A good end to Mel and Dom's trip, I hope.

5th April 2009: Sailing on Panmure Lagoon

At their excellent BBQ on the 4th, Claire and Graham invited me to come sailing with them at Panmure Lagoon Sailing Club, a small club in south Auckland.

The people there were friendly, and it's remarkably good value:  NZ$25 to hire a nearly-new Laser. The race that day was up and down the Tamaki river, taking about 2 hours. There wasn't much wind - good for me since I hadn't sailed a Laser for some time.

I did quite well, coming third (out of twelve or so).  My sailing skills aren't too rusty after all! I'll have to go back and see if I can improve.

15th March 2009: Tamaki River Walk

Way back last July, Tim and I did New Zealand's notably short Coast to Coast walk. The leaflet describing the route had two other walks to offer, and we gave one a go on Sunday: the Point to Point walkway along the Tamaki River estuary.

The Tamaki River goes almost all the way through to the other side of the North Island; it's only around 2km between the river and the west-coast Manukau Harbour. The Maori used the isthmus as a portage point for their canoes.

The walk was good, hugging the beach on the wide sandy estuary as much as possible. At one point you walk out onto the Tohuna Torea Nature Reserve sand spit and at low tide you can walk back to land on an expanse of sand that is usually under water. It was fairly low tide when we did this and we escaped with only mild dampening of the feet. We later worked out that it was neaps, which possibly explains why we didn't stay drier.

14th March 2009: New Zealand Beer Festival

I went along to this beer festival with Ken, a colleague from CHP. Sophie, being essentially allergic to beer, decided to give this one a miss.

I haven't been to many beer festivals, but this one was quite different to what I expected. It was more of a general party with beer-sampling as an excuse than anything - quite good fun. There were far fewer beards on display than I would have expected, and much more fancy-dress.

There were live bands too, one of which spent about 20 minutes playing that "I don't know...." song that Kiwis seem to have adopoted as an anthem. What is it actually called though...?

[Update: Found it! It's Why Does Love Do This to Me, by The Exponents. Listen to it here. - Sophie]

14th March 2009: New Zealand National Maritime Museum

This was my first trip to the Maritime Museum. Tim had been on his own last year before I joined him in NZ. I am quite familiar with a couple of the exhibits, however: Thelma and Waitangi get a free berth at the museum in return for being on display.

The museum was pretty good. The best bit was the display on Maori canoes. The Polynesians used outrigger canoes to make immense ocean voyages exploring the Pacific islands; an incredible feat given the size of the islands compared with the size of the Pacific. There is a 76-foot voyaging canoe on display in the museum, with a sturdy deck between the main hull and the outrigger. Seaworthy but still insane.

A fair chunk of the museum was closed while a new wing is built in honour of Sir Peter Blake. Sadly I don't think we will still be here to see it open.

7th March 2009: Auckland International Boat Show

Soph and I decided to pay a quick visit to the Auckland International Boat Show which was being held in the Viaduct Harbour, just near our flat.

It was much the same as other boat shows I've been to: lots of boats (obviously) and toys for boats, all invariably very expensive. This show also seemed to have a surfeit of marine loos, for some reason.

The London Boat Show in Excel is certainly bigger and more swanky, but this show had a slightly more realistic feel to it. Perhaps this was because Auckland is supposed to have one of the highest boats-per-capita ratios of any city.

28th February 2009: Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World

Despite the cheesy name, Kelly Tarlton's is actually pretty cool. We had been meaning to go for some time and a day of awful weather provided the opportunity, since the whole place is underground.

Kelly Tarlton (a male Kelly) built the aquarium in 1985 from some old disused sewage tanks, a couple of miles out of Auckland centre. He seems to have been a bit of a pioneer in aquariums, building a domed tunnel in the tank so that visitors have fish on both sides and overhead. Back then nobody knew how to bend sheets of acrylic into curves, so he invented his own method to make the tunnel roof.

Nowadays, in addition to the impressive tunnelled tank, there is an open-topped stingray tank and a penguin enclosure containing a load of manufactured snow, and king and gentoo penguins. All the creatures were impressive and beautiful, but the vast stingrays were the best for me. A keeper gets into the stingray tank to feed them by hand while giving a talk to the audience, and they come and nuzzle her looking for food. When I say nuzzle, imagine a 2m diameter, 200kg beast launching itself up her body so that the mouth on its underside is over her hand holding the food. I only wish we had had a camera with us.

22nd February 2009: Rangitoto Island and Cornwall Park

Rich vdH and Hilary came to stay for a couple of days at the end of their holiday in NZ, and we took them to Rangitoto Island. It really is a pretty unique place - I get the feeling we will make another few trips there with visitors before we go home.

We gave ourselves three hours on the island, then inevitably packed enough in that we had to get a move on to see it all. This was made more amusing by the fact that Hilary's walking boots had died a few days earlier. When we arrived at the island the soles were not fully attached; by the time we left, one had fallen off entirely and was tied on with the ends of her shoelaces. The boots just about made it back to our flat before being consigned to the dustbin.

After that exertion we went to Cornwall Park for tea in the cafe on the side of One Tree Hill. This is the cafe we found on the coast-to-coast walk, that had its own tea sommelier. Having already eaten a sizeable lunch, we found space for a cream tea all round before a little kite-flying in the park.

13th-15th February 2009: Sailing on Waitangi

Tim and I spent another weekend racing classic yachts in Auckland. This time there were three days of racing, in the Southern Trust Classic Yacht regatta, and we were asked to crew on Waitangi, Thelma's sister ship. I joined Waitangi for all three days and Tim for the Saturday and Sunday.

The main difference between Waitangi and Thelma is that Thelma, a couple of years newer and more advanced, always wins the races. I was quite pleased to find we had consistently come third in our class, until I found out there are only three boats in our class... the other being Rainbow. We had a great time anyway, and met the usual selection of new people ranging from novices to those whose full-time occupation is sailing round the world.

Sadly the weather wasn't quite as fabulous as on previous occasions sailing Thelma and we got fairly soaked in both salt and fresh water. When the boat heels over, those who are doing jobs on the lee side can be up to their waist in the wash over the deck. We'll have a word with the weather man and see if next time we can stay a little drier.

8th February 2009 - Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

With Sophie continuing the four-day Tongariro Northern Circuit, I went over to the North Head to watch some of the America's Cup boats sailing in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.

Alinghi leads BMW Oracle Racing up the first beat

There were three races scheduled, and the first one (between two Italian crews) got away on time at about 11am. The wind was dying though, and I spent the next 5 hours or so waiting in blazing sun for the next race to start. They did complete the other two races. The 2nd was between Alinghi (Swiss) and Oracle, and the third was between Emirates Team New Zealand and Team Origin (British). Pleasingly, the British team won.

Team Origin crosses ahead of Team New Zealand

These crews showcase some impressive match-racing skills, maneuvering 25-metre (82-foot) boats to within metres of each other. It's entertaining to watch, although it might be a little bewildering for those who aren't into their sailing. The scoring/ranking system for this event was particularly opaque - check out the wikipedia page.

More photos here, but you'd better like boats...

4th February 2009: Le Grand Cirque at The Civic

Kate organised a trip to see Le Grand Cirque, and the usual bunch of around 8 CHPers went along.

The show was similar to Cirque du Soleil (I imagine, having never seen Cirque du Soleil myself). We were very impressed and gasped several times during the evening watching people do things that should be impossible.

Particularly impressive? The double-jointed girl who frequently looked like two halves of a person stacked the wrong way up; the man balancing on a ladder with a couple of ladies standing on his shoulders; an unfeasible number of people on a bicycle; the people who sprinted up and down poles, sometimes using only their hands; the list goes on.

The cast was mostly Oriental and wore polished inscrutable smiles that didn't let you know which the really difficult moves were. The exception was a white girl who swung on a high rope trapeze, periodically yodelling a high-pitched screech. We weren't sure if this was to motivate her or to excite us; I confess I preferred the polished smiles, on the whole.

This is the first time in a long time that any show has ended leaving me wishing it could have gone on for another hour.

14th December 2009: Cycling on Waiheke

We took the ferry to Waiheke and hired a couple of bikes. Waiheke is a good cycling size; you can get round half of it in a day, or all if you're really keen. Sadly I turned out not to be all that keen - I've always said I only like cycling where there are no hills and it turns out to be true. Give me the Thames towpath any day.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we spent some time chilling out by a pretty bay, as well as catching views of some other lovely beaches. Also had a Christmas culture shock moment, passing a gospel choir near the wharf singing carols in the sunshine. It just isn't Christmas. It can't be.

23rd November 2008: Long Bay Marine Reserve

We didn't have much spare time, but we managed took a short trip to the Long Bay Marine Reserve.

We had a good few hours' walk along the sea front, and spent a bit of time watching the wind- and kitesurfers enjoying the conditions. There are some pretty good sites for BBQs and general enjoyment of the beach.

On the way home we narrowly missed being attacked by a runaway shopping trolley in Foodtown's car park. We reversed in a hurry and a nearby parked car bore the brunt, losing a rear light. It's a jungle out here.

22nd November 2008: Sailing America's Cup yachts again

For the second time, we attempted to take a kayak trip to Rangitoto Island. This trip was my leaving gift from work in the UK, but has been cancelled twice due to high winds. This time, with the forecast for 25-35 knots of breeze, we thought we'd fill in the spare day with some sailing on the America's Cup yachts in the harbour - new experience for me and a load of CHPers, and a repeat experience for Tim. (The load of CHPers will probably become a bit of a theme from now on, now the team out here is up to strength.)

The sailing was great fun, with the true wind speed hitting 40 knots at one point. The boat got quite tippy at times but always felt very stable and solid, cutting through the chop rather than being tossed about. Prize for getting the most drenched goes to James, who always seemed to be sitting on the lee side (the downhill side) when the big bits of spray came in.

15th November 2008: Sailing on Thelma again

Thelma, the yacht we sailed on previously, needed crew for another race so Tim went along again.

The wind was a bit stronger this time, and unfortunately we managed to break the boat about 20 minutes into the race: The belaying pin holding the peak halyard snapped, causing half the mainsail to flog and causing a fair bit of panic while all the sails were dropped. We were forced to retire from the race and return to port.

There was a professional photograher about, taking pictures of these very impressive boats.

That's us on Thelma in the foreground, just before the start.