Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: August 31, 2005
Article Type: Journal

Smack in the middle of a farming and pastoral area of New Zealand’s South Island, the service town of Ashburton, population 15,000, is the unlikely home of perhaps the leading figure in kites and kiting worldwide. Peter Lynn’s town is in the Canterbury Plains, bordered on the east by the Pacific Ocean and on the west by the New Zealand Alps. Just to the north is Christchurch, a port and jumping off point for Antarctic expeditions. Ashburton is on the same latitude as Boston, but with a few more sheep and marsupials and, of course, with seasons reversed.

Lynn and extended family and close friends occupy a section of central Ashburton embracing houses, workshops, outbuildings, fields, and an industrial park owned by the family. The Peter Lynn household is the center of action. Visitors, a stream of them from morning to night, walk into the house without knocking. Some head directly to the refrigerator to pour themselves a drink or grab a snack. It’s that kind of place.

Presiding when he’s not on one of his frequent forays to the Northern Hemisphere is Peter Lynn, closing in on 60, inventor and premier showman in the world of kiting.

PDF Link: Journal Issue