Ozone NZ heads to Kitesurf Tonga 2.0
Another group of legends headed across the Pacific to experience the epic & remote kitesurfing spot that is Kitesurf Tonga a few weeks back, for another week of kiting fun and warmer waters with Ozone New Zealand.
Still half asleep and from across the North island, everyone arrived at Auckland airport early on a Wednesday morning buzzing for the promising week ahead. Long time kiters, non-kiters, new kiters & foilers we all had one thing in common - Ozone New Zealand. Morgan from ONZ had everything organised down to a T, and did a bloody great job at getting our team of 10 to and from the little remote island in Tonga that became our own piece of paradise for the week. It took two planes (one very rickety plane) and a hand built boat to get us to the island of Uoleva, where our perfect little eco resort Kitesurf Tonga warmly welcomed us to their paradise!
We made it to the island with wet feet (and bums), and ready to take on the windy paradise! A few of us were lucky enough to have a once in a lifetime experience swimming with the migrating Humpback whales on the first day, which was truly magical. All organised by camp leader Morgan of course! Once that was ticked off the list, we were all set to spend the week walking the 400m track through the abundance of palms to get to our beautiful kiting spot at the edge of the island. (This ended up being a 4 x a day walk as we all enjoyed a beer at lunch so headed back to camp to the beer fridge!)
The days all sort of morphed into one as we got very used to (and very comfortable with) our daily routine. This started with a 7am breaky in the common Fale, consisting of kiwi chef Sam's delicious homemade bread, and then a slow gather up of everyones Kiting gear and blocking up (and the odd volleyball game) before we all headed up to the kite spot once the wind had picked up around 9.30-10. We had 2-3 hours of Kiting, Foiling, snorkelling and swimming around the beautiful reef (with the odd turtle sighting) and headed back for lunch and a beer just after midday. We would head back up to get a couple more hours of Kiting in for the arvo, and slowly wander back to camp late arvo to enjoy a spot of stand up paddle boarding, some more snorkelling, and a beer together while the sun set. With a few competitive streaks in the team, we also managed to squeeze in a few volleyball games most days, which often ended in fits of laughter (and some strong competition).
The consistent wind throughout the week also proved perfect conditions for one of the team, Issy, to have her first go at kiting! Although she was a little nervous at first, it didn't take her long to get full control of the kite (Alpha V1 10m), and with the help of kiting legends Mat, Morgan and Sarah, she was confidently boosting her body out of the water in no time! We unfortunately ran out of time to get her on the board, but we're happy to have recruited another kiter to the mix!
The hospitality from Glen and Karen at Kitesurf Tonga was second to none, let alone their beautiful handmade Fale's which we had the pleasure of staying in for the week. All of these were made with salvaged materials Glen and Karen had collected and brought over from NZ, and they all included a composting toilet and were completely solar powered! They decided to move to a remote island in Tonga and build their own eco resort all out of their love for Kitesurfing! Pretty inspirational people. Thanks again for your wonderful hospitality, we can't wait to come back next year!
The highlight of the trip was probably the day we had a storm trooper come kiting with us!
What we took to Tonga: