Lots of fun and flying at New Brighton Kite Day 2019, Christchurch, New Zealand

[@korkis2614]

what a beautiful hobby !! what a beautiful country with awesome peoples,,,,longlive NZ from Greece !!!!

[@JimNicholls]

Thank you, sir! I hope you will have a lot of fun with your kites this year when the weather gets warmer.

[@cloudybongo]

Great show, you certainly know how to do it in style. Even international participants..., it'll be the southern hemipshere's answer to Fano before you know it. I love Carl's new trilobite. The blue/yellow colours look great.

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks, Bill. We were very happy with the turnout. The colours on Carl's new kite are those of his local province (Otago), but he didn't realise when he ordered it! In fact, I think his wife had to point it out to him, but it's a great combination anyway.

[@cloudybongo]

Hi, Do you happen to know if this was one of "Monica's" or another supplier? Maybe Carl will post a longer video from the flyers position. I've a feeling that colour combo may well be in my next order....

[@JimNicholls]

It was from another source, Bill. As with all good kites, other Chinese factories have no compunctions about copying something they see is selling well. It seemed to be well made and flew well, too, but needed more breeze than Carl's other 10m Trilobite.

[@CirrusRC]

Great video of the day Jim - sorry I couldn't be there. The octopus certainly make an impressive display. I also enjoyed the Brasington train and the footage your son took from the pier. Glad the day was a success.

[@JimNicholls]

Maybe you'll make a return visit sometime, David, and arrange it to coincide with Kite Day! Not sure if I'll still be flying or not, but I'm sure you'd have fun anyway.

[@thomasmorrison8011]

Such an impressive turnout. I love it.

[@JimNicholls]

Thank you, Chris. The important thing is that everyone who attended seemed to have fun, which is the whole point of the day.

[@groover6782]

Great film Jim! You guys certainly put in a show 🤩🌈🌎

[@JimNicholls]

Well, some of us had plenty of practice at Nelson the previous weekend, so that probably helped!

[@MichaelKSherman]

One of your finest Jim! Thanks for sharing. Love the T-shirt.

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks, Michael. I thought I'd replied to you earlier, but it seems to have vanished. Yes, the T-shirt is good, even with the spelling error!

[@lucychia6933]

Your fish kite is huge and looks cool. Usually I see such kite aided by lifter but yours flew unaided. Amazing!

[@JimNicholls]

Lucy, this is the only fish of this size that flies alone. It's a great design, but expensive of course.

[@MarkAGroh]

Great video and crowd, should be like that daily on that wonderful beach....beautiful kites Jim…..

[@JimNicholls]

Well, Mark, if it was that busy every day I think I'd find somewhere a bit quieter to fly! But as you know, it's rare for there to be more than a few people on our beach unless it's an exceptionally hot day, so it was definitely the kites which attracted them this time.

[@MrHelidude]

What a wonderful video....... ☆☆☆☆☆ Was so nice to see people and the activities all around ....... ✔✔✔

[@JimNicholls]

You should have got your employers to send you over as their official representative, Nara. You could have flown a Qantas kite and given them lots of publicity!

[@MrHelidude]

I reckon they would have still made me pay for my ticket. LOL

[@halaasen3416]

Looks like it was a splendid festival Jim. Great job on the video!

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks, Hal. It was a lot of fun.

[@stefaanpyckavet]

Another great video of another great kite display!

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks, Stefaan. It's a pity the sun disappeared, but at least it didn't rain, except for a few drops half way through which fortunately came to nothing.

[@danokitemanotoo1791]

Great Fix on the T-shirt Sir! Looks like it was a successful day looking up! I too agree about too much Inflatable Laundry, but I guess it's easier to deal with compared to spars (which I'm kind of partial to myself). I do have a lot of soft stuff too nowadays.

[@JimNicholls]

I'm not opposed to soft kites, and have quite a few, and at my age (80 next month) I like the convenience of not having to assemble the kite. What I hate is the total dominance of so-called kite festivals by nothing but huge items of line laundry, not kites. The same Peter Lynn items turn up everywhere, and seem to have destroyed most people's ideas of what a kite is. It's one reason that so few people fly kites now, I think - there are many others, of course.

[@lionharehart]

Still being watched in 2020. Hindsight is always educational. As well as classical. 🎼🎶🎭

[@JimNicholls]

I don't know how many appreciated the music, Vito, but it's good to have some quality sometimes. I wish KZbin provided more such music among the mostly rubbish that they provide for video makers to use.

[@jamesb72]

Amazing to see so many big kites flying. I'd love to see a step by step video of how you unpack, launch and repack your huge kites single handed as they look so big to handle.

[@JimNicholls]

A lot of those kites were being flown by the team from Peter Lynn Kites, as I said, but all my kites I find quite easy to fly single-handed. The Mega fish was the largest this time, but even that is not bad. The kites all pack up quite small, as they are 99 per cent air when flying. Some of the bigger ones have zippers to make it easier to deflate them for packing, as getting all the air out is the hardest part and they can't be packed away until that's done. I'll try to make a video as you suggest sometime, but as I do all the camera work too, it's a little tricky.

[@jamesb72]

@@JimNicholls Thanks Jim, I just got an 8M octopus, which is tiny compared with yours, but still I needed some help to launch/recover so am sure it would be really useful to see how you do it with your big Trilobyte and Fish.

[@grahamev1]

What a day Jim. Fabulous.

[@JimNicholls]

What a pity you couldn't have been here this time, Graham. It would have made the day even better.

[@fotonmom]

That day could not have gotten much better. I will have to drop you and e mail and you can tell me more about it--- That little green octopus looked like one of those 'cleaner' fishes that big fishes have as groomers. Glad to see everyone out..and happy.

[@JimNicholls]

The person flying the tiny octopus should have been a lot more careful, but didn't seem to have much idea of what he was doing. Anyway, no real harm was done. It was a great day, despite the lack of sunshine.

[@MrOldflyer]

What a great kite festival. Well done Jim!

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks, Nigel - it was great fun. I wanted to fly Kite Dude, but there were so many kites in the air that I didn't find room to put him up. The Mega Fish had to wait until the end to find some space. It really was a busy beach.

[@harrydhillon2541]

Hi Jim... The Christchurch Kite Festival is certainly bigger than the Nelson one. Amazing Kite flying and you had some professional teams come for Display as well. That is something lacking in my local kite festival, here in Brampton. As we prepare for another Snow Storm with - 30 Degree Celsius (Hitting us Monday afternoon (EST)), I am keeping warm looking at your videos !!!

[@JimNicholls]

The professional team from Peter Lynn Kites was at Nelson as well, of course, but the best thing about our event I think is the huge number of children flying their own kites and having fun. The PLK team are based only an hour and a half's drive from here, so they always come. Everyone else is strictly amateur. It doesn't sound as if you'll be doing much flying in the near future!

[@harrydhillon2541]

I will be out of commission for atleast three mo ths from here :-( . Jim i wanted to ask from where did you purchase Mario (line laundry) i couldnt locate him online.

[@JimNicholls]

Harry, I got Mario and Luigi from here: tinyurl.com/ya8eml7f

[@harrydhillon2541]

Thanks Jim, I had searched for Mario on the Aliexpress website many times earlier, but with the description that they have given to Mario, I would not have been able to locate him in a 100 years !!!

[@shinnerz4047]

Those octopus kites look quite cool!

[@JimNicholls]

They're good - easy to fly, look great, and very good value.

[@mrlionel1965]

What a great day Jim. That’s usually what our beach look s like here most days during the summers, minus all of the kites of course. Looks like you had a TON of fun, and yes, the T shirt is great. Sadly, we are in the verge of breaking some cold temps, it has been -16 here the last 3 days and 6-12” of blizzard is expected tonite. Fun stuff...NOT! Great vid Jim.

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks, Ken. As you know, our beach is more often empty, even in the summer, unless it's a particularly hot day. I hope you can avoid frostbite - this global warming is a terrible thing!

[@mrlionel1965]

This whole week will be bad. Now they are upping snow totals to 12” plus...yikes!

[@dozzydolly]

I love your videos. Thank you for your efforts.

[@JimNicholls]

I'm happy that you enjoy them, and thank you for your appreciation.

[@perfalck778]

nice video as always cheers from Denmark

[@JimNicholls]

Thank you! Maybe you can come for next year's event - we're hoping to make it more international.

[@dangerbhai968]

I love your shirt from India

[@JimNicholls]

Thank you!

[@Kimberlite66]

Does anyone know if there are anymore kite events left to happen around NZ for 2019? We just had such a fun day at the Auckland Matariki Kite Festival that we want to go to more. Willing to travel anywhere in NZ to go to a kite day 😄

[@JimNicholls]

Have a look here: www.nzka.org.nz/

[@skunkieskunk]

Thank you :)

[@JimNicholls]

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@Phooie]

Mr Jim, what was your selection of music?

[@JimNicholls]

It's the Brandenburg Concerto No. 41 by Bach, which I found in the KZbin free music library.

[@Phooie]

Great choice. Thanks.

[@hugotuulelohed1822]

though you have a base there in my country only by the sea such kites i live inland and i don't get there. good job

[@JimNicholls]

Sea breezes are usually best for flying, of course, but not at this time of year when they are very changeable. I hope you're having fun, Hugo.

[@waynehross]

Awesome

[@JimNicholls]

Thank you, Wayne!

[@PanyingPilot]

Success!

[@JimNicholls]

It went quite well, Glenn. You've been very quiet recently - can we expect a video or two soon?

[@PanyingPilot]

@@JimNicholls Thanks for asking, I want to offer something other than my obligatory eagle. I would like to go back to the 5m orca again. I've not come across anything exciting lately. I'll get something up soon.

[@JimNicholls]

I'll look forward to that, Glenn. Me, I put something up even if it's nothing - stops me from getting too bored. I've been selling a few more kites in order to be able to pay for one or two new items which should be here soon.