Up Up & Away In The Wairarapa In My Beautiful Balloon
Up Up & Away In The Wairarapa In My Beautiful Balloon
A photo story by Tessa Nichol
Tessa took her flight as a guest of the Wairarapa Balloon Festival
It’s an overcast morning in the Wairarapa but the mood on the ground in Carterton’s Carrington Park is anything but grey.
More than 20 hot air balloons are getting ready to take off into the cloudy sky to mark the start of this year’s Wairarapa Balloon Festival.
Excited children have risen early to catch the annual event before school, some of them still in their pyjamas.
Their parents and other adults are watching just as gleefully as giant ropes of snake-like material begin to expand and float as the crews fill them with air.
Inflating The
Balloons - In Carterton At Dawn
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big versions
“This is pretty amazing, isn’t it,” I say to my pilot, Chris Bransgrove.
“You ain’t seen nothing,” he replies.
He should know - Chris has been piloting hot air balloons for more than 30 years.
He was the owner one of the first four hot air balloons sold in New Zealand, bought just over 30 years ago.
“I bought it a few weeks before my first son was born,” Chris says.
“Now he flies them too.”
We jump into the basket of Chris’ balloon along with his friend and crew member Jo Adams.
My pilot at the controls of his balloon
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All around us the
other balloons are about to take off too
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big version
The balloon has been prepared for our combined body weights - knowing the weight of your basket is important for ballooning, to the point where I have been asked to leave my small backpack in the car.
As we lift off from the ground, two boys run past, hands stretched out for a high-five.
Our fingers touch and they run off whooping, trying to catch the crew in the next balloon down the line before it flies too high.
Chris is right - what you see on the ground does
not compare to the views from in the air.
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The other balloons float quietly around us, you can see them from every angle and the lovely rolling hills of the Wairarapa unfold into the distance behind them.
I’ve got a massive grin on my face as I start snapping away with my camera.
Some balloons are disappearing from view as they ascend into the mist, although none are going too high as visibility is important for safety reasons.
“You alright there,” asks Chris, patting me on the back.
“Yeah I love it,” I reply eagerly.
“Good, just making sure you weren’t going to be sick.”
I found ballooning an incredibly gentle way to fly; its momentum is gained from wind rather than any kind of motor and today is a calm day.
The tranquillity is periodically interrupted by the roar of the gas flame Chris uses to control the balloon’s height.
We float along above Carterton, low enough to wave at locals peering up and call down a cheerful “good morning”.
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It’s strange being at this height – still low enough to see all the normal bits of daily life, yet too high for it to feel normal at all.
After an hour or so, we come in to land in a paddock, cheered on by a crowd of locals who have popped outside to look.
Coming into land
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The three of us, helped
by Chris’ wife, Wendy, go through the process of deflating
the balloon and packing it away.
We manage to load everything into the truck just as the first soft spatters of rain start to fall.
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Tessa Nichol is a student in Whitireia's
journalism school, she was hosted as a member of the media
on the opening day of the
Wairarapa Balloon Festival which runs from 12th March to
15th
March.
ENDS