Dec 28 – Wednesday

Pick up mini vans and trailers.

We have 3 Toyota 12 seat vans for the trip. Each has a trailor to stack all our gear in! There is loads of it. Lucky these guys are not mountaineers or they would die from exhaustion carrying all their gear. The Dutch contingent, Greg, Morris and Selena picked up the vans from Sutherland.

Dec 29 – Thurday

The monkey kites office is full of an international crowd of kiters. Everyone is excited opening up their boxes full of Monkeykites gear, modding bars on the back lawn, fitting their Gath Helmets and Blueeye Sunnies. The Camelbaks arw really popular because it is sooooo hot right now. It's like the night before Christmas with all the guys sleeping on the floor to be first on the road tomorrow.

Dec 30 Friday – off we go!

Well most of us …

Today we packed all the gear, 30 kiters, 10 support crew and Toby the Chef into 3 mini buses, 2 cars, the Delica and VW Transit and headed off. Most got away early but Jarrod (Sth Australia ) spent most of the day at MonaVale hospital with suspected appendicitis. Selena and Chris waited back to see if Jarrod would be OK and the rest of the crew got to do a lot of waiting in a big traffic jam on the Princes Highway just north of Raymond Terrace.

Jarrod did not look too good after blood tests, an MRI and some dye being injected into him from a shunt in his hand so we left him in Sydney with his sister in the hope he would be able to fly up and join us for NYE.

It was an epic drive to make it up to Scotts Head to Annie's place where we camped for the night.

It was a great atmosphere with the groms (Benn, Andreas and Dominique) camping in a Tee Pee and everyone else in Tents on couches on the veranda. Annies looks out over the beach so we can see the wind coming. The locals came and joined us for some fire twirling and Toby cooked up a great dinner.

Dec 31 Saturday – WIND!

Woke up to wind. Andreas was pretty excited to find a chicken brooding on the couch in the living room had laid an egg. There were big black and brown cicadas everywhere.

Headed down to Forster Beach at Scotts Head for a kite after breakfast. 32 Monkeykites in the air at the one time had all the beach goers entertained and all our kiters grinning from ear to ear after a fun session in 15 knots. Most locals had not seen kiting before and were really excited about it.

Wind died down and we headed back to Scott and Annies for lunch and to pack up and head out to Mount Warning for New Years Eve.

Kim, Jarrod, Ian, Kjetil, Shane and Jeb were already on the Gold Coast so drove up to meet us for New Years Eve at Mt Warning. Actually we lost Shane so he hooked up with some mates in Brisbane for the night.

This is the first night we have all been together so there is a lot of introductions and general discussion about where everyone is from and where they kite. It is agreed that Nicolas Bruno from Tahiti has the best commute to his favourite kite spot on Moorea. He crosses the road in front of his house, pumps up his kite, then kites down to the spot. Living on an island which can be driven around in 40 minutes means you can kite in any wind direction without any delay in getting there!

Everyone brought a bottle of their local spirits for NYE and Jeb brought a couple of boxes of flashing silicone toys from China which were an instant hit with the 5 kids on the trip. We counted down midnight twice at local NSW time and Queensland time. The alcohol and 2 days of driving made for a good nights sleep in preparation for Sunday's start. Like most, a little worse for wear, Jeb gave up on erecting his tent. We found him rolled up in it the next morning sound asleep.

Jan 1 – Sunday

Today is the day! We have been contacted by some local and national news papers who want to cover the event. They wanted to know when we would start and could not understand ‘when it gets windy'. We nominated 1.30 pm and luckily the wind came up a 1pm .

Richelle, Peter and the Groms jumped the gun so the starting pack split in 2. The Groms are stoked because they made page 6 of The Sydney Morning Herald – a great shot with the entire Gold Coast skyline in the background. We kited our way from just south of Currumbin Alley to just north of Bogangar Headland.

Grins all round.

Mo had 3 dolphins kiting with him – his first time – and didn't even notice the massive shark that the rest of the crew kited over.

Dominique blew a binding screw on his board and had to come into shore 5k short of the end mark. He was surprised when he was asking the locals on the beach for a screwdriver to find a guy who offered to drive home and get him one. He did! So 10 min later Dominique was back on his board and kiting toward the end of the beach.

Jan 2 – Monday

Pack up camp and head down the coast. It is blowing from the South East today so we run the route in reverse. Start is at the South end of Golden Beach kiting north past Black Rock to Hastings Point.

Scotty on Monkeykites and Chris on the Toyota Kites led the pack. All started well at 15 to 20 knots but dropped off at the end of the day. Most of the crew made it to the end point but we had to pick up a few at spots along the way where they had stopped. Nick and Mike who were the last two to leave ran out of wind and spent their waiting time building a giant monkey in the sand.

We head down to South Ballina to camp for the night. Toby was delayed so Selena walked into Domino's pizza and ordered 2 off everything on the menu 10 minutes before closing time … they made us 30 pizza;s and they just made the last car ferry back to feed everyone.

Jan 3 – Tuesday

Jeroen and Richelle woke at dawn today and slipped into a full dinner suit and a wedding dress and headed down to the beach to watch the sun rise. The rest of the crew got up at 6.30 and joined them for their marriage ceremony. It was such an amazing vibe! We formed an arc around them in the shade of a 23m evolution kite. They stood in a circle of floral leis and declared they would ‘remain faithful to each other until their last kite session'.

Kiting wise we have another SE day so had a wave riding session at South Ballina Beach with a few more pods of dolphins joining us.

The guys all headed into Byron Bay for the evening returning home to camp in an amazing thunder storm which unfortunately dowsed our camp in heavy warm rain. We need the rain as we have been in drought for so long but it makes the camping less fun.

Jan 4 – Wednesday

No Wind today. Probably a good thing because Chris's oil filter packed it in and needed replacing. We found a filter then came the challenge of finding someone with tools to fit it. A great guy in Maclean fitted us in then we got a call that bus 2 has had their trailer fail. They limp into the same repair guy and he fixes the problem and we get back on the road. Then we get a call from Toby .. the fuel pump on his VW catering van has packed it in and he has called the NRMA to come tow him into Grafton. We manage to hire a ute to carry all the food. We get in a couple of good surfs and see loads of kangaroos and emus in Yuraygir National part. We head into Minnie Waters to set up camp at the local caravan park. When we get there we find they have allocated us a spot on top of anthills so we head off to The National Parks Camping spot which overlooks beaches to the north and south. We set up camp and Toby whipped up a great pasta for all of us.

Jan 5 – Thursday

Drove to Woolgoolga via Red Rock.

Amazing kiting spot large flat water area and at the mouth of this area where it opens to the sea was a big standing wave. Unfortunately no wind and rain rain rain so we head up to Corindi Pub to drown our sorrows … a big game of ‘Slosh' takes pace. It's like pool but without cues and with each ball assigned to a person. You take turns at rolling the white ball into other folks balls to sink them and eliminate them from the game.

After as while the wind picks up and 2 busloads head down for a great kite session. Ian Young spent ages n the standing wave and tgen heading out into the big swell behind this for some wave riding.

Daniel Dietrich, Mo, Tahiti , Oz Grom Benn, Stephen and a few others head out for a big flat water session. Daniel is boosting BIG. Benn heads out into the surf for a while and downs his kite in the standing wave. He is getting sucked out to sea and his kite is headed into shore. Julien and Shane give him a hand by catching the kite so he can get into shore. Julien slips on a rock and cuts two huge gashes below his knee. He has to have 5 stitches to close the two cuts and spends the night in Coffs Harbour at the hospital.

Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain – nothing you can do about it. ;(.

The guys head into Coffs Harbour to see movies, go bowling, etc etc etc.

The suf was good. Shiplee and the boys headed out for a few waves. The local Pub and RSL at Woolgoolga were checked out … wildlife was interesting .. the local bouncer has a height limit on jumping when you dance ... strictly enforced.

Poured rain last night again. The guys got up for an early surf, packed up the hall and all their gear. Bus 2 and 3 headed down the coast to Hat Head and Crescent head for a surf. Ian Young killed his 18m kite in massive surf at Crescent Head. Selena will have another big fixing session tonight.! Great surf but we want WIND!.Bus 1 got a kite in at Forster Beach , Scott's Head. The Groms decided to bury Andreas in the sand rather than kite. He ended up with a pile of Banana Boat in his hair – no burnt scalp for him.

Crew are all having a party at Scott and Annie's Place tonight. Annie has been such a legend letting us take over her yard and house. We have 2 bonfires going and some chilled music on. I get a break to update some info for you all. It has been hard to get reliable internet access on the road.

Jan 8 – Sunday

We wake up to rain again L . Decide to head south to escape this weather system. We drive on south to a great spot we have promised the local crew we would not mention. Got a surf in when we arrived and checked out the big flatwater area and the waves which are separated by a thin strip of dunes. Heaven! Can't wait for the rain to stop.

Well it did stop … just long enough for all our gear to dry then rain again to wet it all through! Surfs, Paint ball, car surfing, catamaraning, surfing 18m kites on 60m lines and wind waiting were the activities today … Grrr! Tensions rising due to lack of kiting …

Looks dim again this morning but we decide to wait out the rain until noon .. and well .. we were rewarded well for our efforts. The sun came out, the wind picked up from 8 – 15 knots then again in the afternoon to 20 knots

Epic Flat Water

The morning was spent on the massive flat water area. Everyone had about 5 days of kiting to catch up on so it was very hectic on the water. Noon to 4pm spend on the flat the at 5pm 24 riders head off for a 39km kite around 4 headlands South. The rest stayed for an extended flat water play.

Sun burn for Andreas and Mo was a real eye opener ... or in their case closer ... they did not reapply Bananaboat or wear their Blue Eyes and both ended up sun burnt eyeballs. OUCH! Both said it was worth it.

Peter Shiplee cut his hand on a shell on the flat water. We took him to the medical centre for 2 stitches but they wanted to charge $200 so he came back, gaffa-taped his hand up and set off on the downwinder with the rest of the crew.

At the first headland Tilly from Norway and Daniel had to pull out because of a blow foot strap. We got a call from a local who had been watching us kite all day to not worry about coming back to pick them up .. they would put all their gear in their car and drop them back to the bus which had stayed to do more flat water …

Jarrad had to pull in at the 3 rd beach with a screw that had popped out of his binding … he introduced himself to a few girls on the beach and one of them headed off to find him a screw driver at the caravan park. He chatted up the other girls until the first one returned with the tools, he fixed his binding then headed off.

Our Navman tells us the guys actually kited 78 km with all the additional wave riding and tacking etc along the way.

Scotty and Chris led the group with Mike and Nick being the last two to make sure we knew where everyone who came in early was. Both sets with Uniden waterproof walkie talkies to communicate with eachother and the pick up busses.

Scotty and Chris stopped before each headland to form a strategy for rounding it. They say each one looked like the edge of the earth with nothing on the other side and big swell. But after rounding all was ok as there would be a long golden beach on the other side.

Jeb's dad had joined us for a few days and described the sight of 22 kiters moving along the beach as they appeared through the haze of the sea mist like something from War of the Worlds or The Day of the Triffids.

We then hopped in the busses at dusk as fruit bats flew overhead to roost and headed off to Hawks Nest.

Jan 11 – Wednesday

Hawks nest – An amazing place to kite .. A huge flatwater area at Jimmy's Beach looking out to Port Stephens. A long long long beach at the north .. great for downwinders as it is accessible by 4WD.

Wind was North East when we got to the beach so we headed North to Mungo Brush to downwind. A massive thunderstorm rolled in with lightening and torrential rain so we all huddled under a picnic shelter to keep dry while lunch was on. It was impossible so most of us just went out in the rain and had a swim in the lake.

Wind turned from the south in the afternoon so we headed to Jimmy's for flat water. Another front rolled through so we went for a surf at Bennets beach instead

Jan 12 – Thursday

Looks good for a kite at Jimmy's today before we head to the central coast.

Jan 13 – Friday

Jan 14 Saturday