I was dying to get away from work this afternoon. All day I've been watching the tops of the trees outside the office window getting buffeted by a screaming south-west wind. All I wanted to do was get down to the Wakapuaka Sand Flats and blast around in it with my kite buggy. Now some people might have said that there was too much wind. The fact that it was gusting badly would have put off others... but not me. oh no.
The sudden gusts that were catching the van and threatening to put it into the roadside ditch on the way home could have been a subtle warning. The fact that I almost lost my footing (twice) in wind gusts, while walking kites and buggy across the sand flats should have rang some bell in my head. I proceeded to set up two Excaliburs, thinking one might not go fast enough (yeah, right). When I turn around my buggy was 200 meters downwind travelling on its own. "That doesn't usually happen", I thought, but it didn't phase me. I retrieved the buggy and proceeded to launch a double stack of Excaliburs, slightly to the side of the wind to soften the blow as they lift off and climb...
The instant the wind caught the kites it snapped both sides of the front kites bridles simultaneously with a 'pop', as if the 150 pound braided cord was sewing cotton, and left me deflated on my backside. The kites went into a 'deathspin' around the single steering line still attached, which ended abruptly when they met the ground again a few seconds later. It's probably lucky they did break, otherwise I could have been in for a bit of a skate, on a surface that is not much fun to skate on. About then I thought to myself, "maybe it's a little bit too windy", and promptly congratulated myself on the understatement of the day.
I packed up the broken kites and lines, leaving the buggy upside-down so it wouldn't blow away again. I then sat in the buggy, put my kite (in bag) on my lap and buggied briskly downwind, back to the van... with just the wind on my back for power. Yeah... maybe it was too windy.
8:41:49 PM 
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