I will be there in a coupla weeks west coast north island. Easy to hire gear for a few days instead of carting it across the ditch. Rumors of heavy localism guarding their waves. I've seen pictures of big swells rolling in and the wind charts are saying sw around 20kn this time of year.
After AC/DC show in Wellington on 30th I'm going to give Raglan a crack for a few days.

Hey Mal,
You might want to get in touch with Ralph at TKS he hires gear out and can arrange to have it sent anywhere in NZ.

http://www.thekiteboardingshop.co.nz/catalog/hire.php

Taranaki is also suppose to be an awesome wave spot, not sure but I think it is a fair way South of Raglan.
P.S. you might also need to take a wetsuit I think it would be a bit colder than Gero.

Taranaki is the same distance as Raglan from my mates place, I don't know which way to boost. Raglan seems more mystical/mecca to me,a bit like Gnarloo to others from around the world.

If you're a wave kiter head south to Taranaki and drive around the mountain until the wind is cross-shore.

If you want to play in flat water go to Raglan. Wave-riding out the back is primarily on-shore stuff.

Or make a decision when you arrive and look at the weather map. You can kite at Raglan if it's easterly but it's gusty and there will probably be a howling SE in South Taranaki.

Simon

Thanks Simon,
I'm going for waves so it sounds the best , probably some nice right handers down south taranaki at a guess

Taranaki is definitely the go absolute wave mecca coastline lots of worthy kite spots on that coast and to find cross shore.Raglan has a large hill on the cross shore side making the winds real gusty. Great surf though and well worth the visit. I,m jelous of you Mal wish I was going back to surf of the black boulders of Raglan and kite Taranaki.Great country you will enjoy.
Have a good one.

While on the topic of Kiting in NZ... Has anyone ever kited anywhere near Westport / Tauranga Bay area. (Right up on the North west Coast, South Island). I will be working here for a bit. Wind seems to be pretty consistent but not too sure about heading out at these spots by myself. Any previous encounters would be helpful.
Cheers.

Carters Beach at Westport is AWESOME riding, plus the river mouth south of cape Foulwind is some of the best flat water riding anywhere.

Cheers

DK

I totally agree with DK, Cape Foulwind (just south of Westport) is one of the best spots in NZ.

Nine Mile, the estuary entrance south of Tauranga Bay is unique, dead flat water in gradually increasing ramps, it is truly weird having someone kite alongside you but at a totally different water level. The waves can be huge if you venture further out, every time you think you're out the back you discover to your horror that you are not.

Ideally you should at least have someone know where you are, I remember a session at Carters where I had a feeling that I should come in, landed and packed up my kite and then started wondering why I was such a wuss. Suddenly it was 40 knots and my board ended up being blown up a bank and through a paddock. Then came a hail-storm that destroyed the foam on my roof-racks, fortunately my kite was in my car.

Awesome. thanks for the advice. I was trying to decide whether to bring my surfboard or my kite back on my next rotation. I might try and bring both. Which is the most accurate weather site with live data that I can use to check the wind?(and approaching hail storms)

It's all user pays pays here so it's hard to find live data for free. Outside the main centres it tends to be once every three hours.

Windfinder, Windguru, MetVUW, MetService, and SwellMap (all .com not .co.nz) are all reasonable predictors of weather. They use pretty much the same data-sets these days. They seem to be a bit under-predictive of the strength of the westerlies this El Nino year.

There is a webcam at the cafe on Tauranga Bay somewhere, it was here: http://surf.co.nz/reports/westcoast-north/

Simon