The Kiwi Balloon Company is a small outfit and the passengers have to help out quite a bit with the preparation and stowage of the baloon. It was a surprisingly quick process: you lay it out on the grass, blow it up with a big fan, then fill it with hot air and jump in quick. It took about 20 minutes from bagged to airborne.
The balloon, just lifting itself off the grass
The flight lasted about an hour and flew up to 2000ft. The views definitely beat plane flights, not least because you could look straight down at the toy sheep and houses. I was surprised at how much steerage the pilot had: the layers of air at different altitudes move in significantly different directions, so the pilot could steer the balloon very accurately by rising or falling. It was fascinating!
A very still lake, not far from our landing site
We were buzzed briefly by a barrel-rolling biplane, and finally landed in Te Kowhai airstrip. Sophie enjoyed deflating the balloon by sitting on it (okay, it was mostly deflated and rolled up already).
More photos here.
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