I'll answer my own question. It seems the Snow Farm at Wanaka might be a good choice. I'll give it a shot and let you know how it is.

vishy are you going there on holiday or working??
if the second i wanna know more

Yep I'll be going wanaka way for about a month and give this snowkite bisso I good nudge.
Pat if your planning on kiting you'll have wind that's for sure Easterlies will freeze your gonads off bring a good wetty , you'll need it! You could drive pretty much up the east coast and see alot of breaks from the road hell you can do the whole island up to Nelson in 9 hours, there's a fair bit of turbulance in places given the land height from the water line.
There's a bit of a small scene in Christchurch I forget the guys name from the only kite shop there up near ferrymead rd beside where they make the underground boards, groundswell I think they're called, they should be able to give you some advice on spots.
I'll find the details.
Enjoy your trip.

GreenPat said...

I want to snowkite mate, not water.

Of course you do, what don't you wear your wetsuit when your snowkiting, so I'll have to buy new gear too.
No really , was having a brief pink floyd moment brought about by one too many beers, I thought man this guy is crazy kiting there at that time of year he's nuts!
It's cold enough in the water in summer time without going in full on winter. Haha
My mistake, don't worry I've already clouted myself
Check out www.snowreports.co.nz/ for all weather reports, as there is not alot of fields with a low enough gradient for snow kiting I would imagine it's pretty limited.
I've skied them all and imo Craigiburn club field is the best for normal skiing.
Have you found other places you can snow kite at Pat in N Z ?

GreenPat said...

Well most other threads on the subject mention the Snow Farm at Wanaka, the transfers that came with my regular snowboarding package include it as a destination and it seems pretty convenient to Queenstown, so between that and only doing it for a couple of days as a break from regular snowboarding I think that's going to be pretty much it.

Pat who did you use for your snow boarding package ????
I go through www.valuetours.com.au but wonder of others that are good prices aso.
Cheers

Hey Gav,

Yeah I remember you, out of everyone who said they were interested to come down for a look you were the only one who showed. It wasn't a crazy idea, it was a great idea and I had a blast, can't wait to go again, though I reckon somewhere like Lancelin would be better next time - I kept worrying about the Penguin Island ferry and the beach is awfully narrow for rigging, not much help in the dark.

As you can probably guess no-one drops into this end of the forums often - pm on the way about your mate, would be well keen to get in touch with him.

Cheers,

Pat

Excellent news WS!

Just checked out the snow reports and it's looking awesome over there!

Can't wait to get started on the camp and hear what Chasta has to say!!

See you on the 20th July for the camp, looking forward to it !!!!!!

I'm going to take my own kite, the smallest one of my quiver. Lots of the footage shows people on LEIs so I don't think it will be a problem. You might be a bit keen taking a 12 though, I'm taking a 9 and I weigh 110kg, they say that you want a much smaller one than you would use on water and from my experience kitelandboarding this is certainly the case.

Should you get a lesson? I don't intend to, but that's just me. I figure that if I get a nice open area with no obstructions and make sure my safety is rigged right it won't be all that different from kitelandboarding, and what difference there is I should be able to work out pretty quickly. That's just me though. Probably better to see if anyone who has actually done it before can make a recommendation.

ha ha just booked my ticket to queenstown 2 lol from 1st sep - 18th sep just could not help myself after sitting at home watching snowkiting dvd (something stronger) 200 times got 8 days of free lift passes so ill have to use them up 1st then pray for wind but not 2 much. im 52kg and cant decide wether to bring my 6m or 8m lei. any1 now what the wind is like in september can only bring 1 kite with me wish i could have gon earlyer to see the world champs but had to work.
evan

Ok kites to take to NZ I spent 6 weeks there, I weigh 90kgs thought one light wind kite would be enough, it wasn't you need 2 just like your water quiver infact you could even have 3 if you want better wind scope.
I had a 9m Ozone Frenzy 08 (snow kite foil) the winds were light on and ranged from 3 to 10 on average, Had 2 days that were around 20 knots and this was a good wind for my 9m , I wish I'd brought my 12m as well as would have used that nearly the whole trip!!
As far as kites go either, but the foil offers the better safety factor on really steep terrain, and if you are going back country where all the best spots are that we've found thus far in NZ are pretty steep, it meens you have better control that's all and can deflete the kite instantly and bring it out of the air with 0 pull, meaning it doesn't pull you off the side of a mountain range.
We had alot of Easterlies during the time , wind is hard to pick as you need the + 2000 m readings which are hard to find accurate readings far from the ski fields which we used to gauge and trianglulate areas.
Also Google Earth was our weapon of choice believe it or not , and it proved invaluable we found a couple of amazing locations in the back country that were unreal, look for road access into any nice open flatish plains , although as Chasta showed us flat is out and full time mountain flying is the best way this sport should travel I recon.
So if you can take two kites also if your serious about really getting into this sport, you will also need the following:
1. Hand held GPS ideally with compass an baro pressure,a good one that can handle altitude note: the magladin can intergrate directly to google earth for up/download of way points.
2. Plastic Snow shoes(invaluable in the back country)
3.UHF hand helds
4.Transponders
5.Snow Shovel.
These things I recon are a must if your gonna give this sport a honest bash.
Things can change quickly on the mountain as I can atest too, having got completely lost in a close out myself you can be miles away from any given point in a matter of minutes, and in mountain ranges and valleys it is very hard to get a bearing.As you have no physical tacking points to follow.
Well all in all as far as the weather went for the 4 weeks I was there solely for snow kiting we got 9 days of kiting in and the rest were boarding at the fields when the wind conditions were not favourable or we got the forecast wrong ourselves which is very easy too do.
I'm hopefully going back for a spring sess before the season ends, Wanaka has a really good place to stay called X The Base it's brand new only $80 a nite tv ensuite, Queen bed.Also the Oak Shores in Queenstown on Franklin Rd is another winner for staying.
Check out www.whotif.com for wicked accom deals in NZ.
Get into it , it'sva blast, and Jon at BoarderPatrol is the man to speak to when you get there.
Enjoy