Kebab sticks and supermarket bags are all it takes to make a decent high-flying kite according to one of the country's biggest kite fanatics.
Owner of Christchurch's Kite Shop, Julie Adam has spent the week in Queenstown hosting the kite-making workshop for "kids of all ages" and said the perfect kite costs next to nothing.
"For me a good kite should fly easily and the supermarket ones fly with out any wind whatsoever."
Growing up in Hanmer, Ms Adam has been a kite enthusiast since a young age because there were no shops and it "was before the time of television".
Hanmer was home to the Queen Mary Hospital for war veterans, where Ms Adam would spend hours making kites with the veterans.
She said making a kite is as easy as looking around the home to find usable materials.
The Cantabrian's passion for the kites soon grew, and 16 years ago she opened the Kite Shop, where she has worked since, although she does not consider what she does a "real job".
"I haven't had a proper job since 1996. My mother always used to say, 'When are you going to get a proper job?".
Ms Adam said she gets as much out of kite-making as she puts into it, because the "giant thanks" she receives from parents and children are heartwarming.
"There are as many adults interested in learning how to make a kite as there are children.
"It's for kids of all ages."
She is now looking for a new venue for her kite-making factory after the February 22 earthquake flattened her Opawa premises.
Asked whether Otago could be a good home for New Zealand's leading kite lady, she said Christchurch is where it began and where it would finish.
The Kite shop is one of the smaller makers of the industry and Ms Adam said she finds it hard to compete with the likes of China's mass production companies.
"We will have to appeal through using that Kiwi brand name I guess."
She said the phenomenon of kite-flying had never really left a Kiwi kid's upbringing and given the chance we would all like to fly one.
Ms Adam will lead Summerdaze Kite Display on Saturday at Pembroke Park in Wanaka and she said no matter what, it is not about competition, it is simply a display of "beautiful kites".
"It's like teddy bears, you can't say whose is the best."
The kite-making workshop would continue in Wanaka today at the lake Wanaka Centre from 10am.
