Hey guys just came back from New Cal... we spent 7 days there and let me say "we spent" sp!t loads...the beers are Just under 10 bucks each(at the pubs) and with no wind for the first 4 days we drank a bit!
The cost of the trip was way more than you'd expect, given that one can go to Vanuatu or Fiji for the same flight costs .... and the "on the ground" costs are half... i would not recommend the place! $22 for a plain hamburger..now come on!
When the wind blew, it cracked...and we had a few days where we spent 6 hours (non-stop) on the water. we went by water taxi out to an island just off Noumea...cost 40 bucks return. The water was 25 odd degrees and it was waist deep for miles out.
I tacked out from the island for about 15 minutes.... and just stood up in the water for a rest stop....COOL.
Some of the locals just set up on the beach at Noumea and tacked straight out to the island....i'd say it would take about 20 or so minutes to get out there.
I was told a good place to stay would be the surf camp at Ouano, but it sucked IMO.
if i was ever to be given a free ticket back there, after exhausting all other avenues of trying to sell said "free ticket", i would only stay in Noumea and kite off the islands.
if you are considering going there....don't! but if you must...take a lot of cash.
if you want to experience the thrill of New Cal before you go, you can grab your weeks wage, shuv it down the loo and flush it! then you'll understand what one day there would be like.
hey maybe if the wind blew everyday it may not have been so costly! but that is just my rant! and I'm happy now.
haha nice advice
i would highly recommend the cook islands if you're after a beautiful location to kite
take a flight to rarotonga via auckland for around $650 return (sale prices!) and then spend the extra $220 return to fly from rarotonga to aitutaki. perhaps one of the most pristine places to kite ever, and the wind just cranks non-stop in august and september.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31529&SearchTerms=Cook,Islands
have a look in that thread for photos
Hey Staber,
Just got home from NC today, we (me and my girlfriend) meet you and your mate on the beach on the Coral Palms Island.
I'll agree with you fully that New Cal can require moocho dinnaro, it's pretty much European prices for everything. We where pretty lucky to take advantage of the New Cal 2 for 1 deal that was on in January and where able to stay at the Coral Palms, well if you could call it lucky I wouldn't advise that any one pay full fair to stay there because it's 5 star prices to stay at a 3 star resort. Plus the beds are like sleeping on ply wood (what where the beds at "Le Meridian" like?)
We will probably go back for the diving and the kiting, we had 7 kiteable days and the wild blows all day. The diving there was the bast I've had so far even with the poor Vis.
I'd recommend that any one that want to visit and kite New Cal to rent a serviced flat so that you can cook most of your own meals. The bus system there works well and the people are friendly and even friendlier if you speak french. It's easy to get any replacement parts that you might need, there's dealers for Air rush, Cab, Naish, North, Ozone, and F-One and those are just what I saw
One last thing is Air Calin is the best airline I've flown on in the last couple years, good food, free grog, decently spaced seats (I'm 6'5" so it can be an issue), nice cabin staff, and we didn't get charged for excess baggage.
Chris
Thats a bugger.
I was looking at going there in the next few months.
My daughters boyfriend is working there for a while, so it was an excuse to go on a holiday to a tropical island & do some kiting
ric
Hey crazy...love the avatar...i'm a big star wars fan.
Nice to meet you guys when we were at Poe beach!
Don't forget the uggies!
see you around guys.
Tone
