Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve we drove from Hamner Springs to the coastal city of Christchurch. There were a couple of earthquakes the night before and two Christmas Eve morning, so Jill called to make sure it was still okay to come. A couple of abandoned buildings that had been damaged in the Feb earthquake did collapse, but there was no other major damage.

On our drive we did stop for about 2 hours to fish the Waiau River, but had no luck. Once we arrived in Christchurch we settled in and went for a walk in the huge park across the street from our hotel. On Christmas morning we woke up at 4:00am for our Hot Air Ballooning with Up Up and Away. They picked us up at 4:30 with basket in tow. After

driving around for almost 2 hours we finally found a suitable place to fly. Most of the usual spots where to cloudy. The cloud cover has to be at least 500 feet above to legally operate. SAFETY FIRST! We almost didn't get to fly at all. So once we were in the right place, the work began. We all had to lend a hand to first get the basket off the trailer, and then to spread the envelope (balloon) out.

Once we had it all laid out, they began filling it with air using two large fans. When it was filled to capacity, our pilot turned on the heat! All 20 of us, the balloon holds 24, jumped in and we were ready to fly. We floated over the canterbury plains for a little over an hour. It was so peaceful and quiet. The thrusters were a bit loud, but they only came

on a little at a time to give us height when needed. When it was time to land, our pilot had to find a suitable paddock, but they were all crops. There is no steering a balloon, so we ended up landing in a dried up river bed between farms. It was quite exciting to land in the basket. It was a bit bumpy, and we just about tipped over a couple of times when we were settling onto the ground. Once we were on the ground, we had to pack everything away, which was a lot of work. The van and trailer that had been following us around while we were in the air, drove down to meet us. We had to collapse the envelope and then get it back into its bag. It took at least an hour to complete that. Once the 1 ton basket was back on the trailer, we had a champagne toast! What a great experience!