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The Peter Lynn Team attended the Nelson kite festival over the weekend. Over the past three months we have had a swiss kite flyer named Manu living and working with us at the factory. Here is his account of the festival.

Day 1: It was the 22th of January and my pick up was about to begin for my first Kite festival on the Southern Hemisphere. I checked again all my bags with the Kites I finished. The Orange-Green Cuttlefish and my Sheriff badge. Both is finished in the last few days and had never a flight before. Craig Hansen arrived at 14:00 and picked me up for the travelling to Nelson. After 2 stops in Christchurch and a long drive we arrived at 23:00 on the flying field. Kirk Hansen and I had a short work with the set up of our tents and then we were driven into the town with Craig for something to eat. With some burgers in the belly, we checked out the party road but Kirk was too tired for party, so we walked back to sleep.

Day 2: Early Saturday morning, it was 8am and most people were already up. Andy gave Kirk and me a lift into the town for breakfast; I love the New Zealand breakfast. After a short walk back to the flying field we started around 9 with the set up of our Buggy’s because there was no wind for something else. At 10 we finished the set up and were still waiting for wind. There was nothing, so Matt goes with Corina to town to buy a Frisbee and a Football with wings and we played with them. Later, the wind picked up and we started slowly the first Pilot’s. With a bit work and waiting we can put my Cuttlefish up. It was a great moment for me and I was so happy that he flew with the first try. The colours look beautiful on the sky. Then it was time for my Sheriff badge but he was for 5 months in his bag, so the bridles had a big tangle. So I had to undo all and finished it after 1 or 2 hours. The bridles aren’t perfect but good enough to fly and 5 min later he hung on the line of the Pilot, it was a beautiful sigh.

I took a short break before I had caught my Buggy and then took off for a little session on the flying field. The wind was just a little bit but with the big Kites we could drive a little. It was fun and then I was told that there is pizza, but was only one eighth of them left. As it was too dark for buggying we started to light up our single line Kites with glow sticks. It looked pretty good so we had time to enjoy the sight with a drink. Later, we are gone to town to make party, it was great and we had a lot of fun. We were at 2am in our tents after a good day.

Day 3: My day started at 10 and it was hot,the sky was blue and the sun was shining. The organisation team did a lot of work this morning, there was an airfield laid out and there were flags set. The wind picked up earlier then on Saturday, so I searched for my kites in the bags to fly them. The pilot could be started, so I began to hang the Cuttlefish and the Sheriff badge to the pilot. Jenny’s husband added later a Heart between the Sheriff and the Cuttlefish so it was a nice train. I finished my work and had time to enjoy all other kites on the sky, it was impressive. At the afternoon I found time to go buggying but there were not much place because the feild was busy. So I started a jump session for 3 guys, they enjoyed it but after 10 min I was very tired. Between 4 and 5 we begun to take the kites down again and load them into the cars because the travel back takes around 6 hours. We left the field at 6 and take a very good weekend with us back to Ashburton.

Manu Burri - January 2010