When my alarm woke me at four in the morning I wondered what I had
done to deserve it. Then I remembered that today I was going Hot Air
Ballooning!That got me jumping out of bed to quickly dress for the
4:20am pickup. As I was the first stop I had to get up earliest, those
with more luck got to have a lie in till 5:00am… luxury!Jason, our
driver, was great; he let us know that Ballooning had a 100% record for
coming back to earth. Whew! The whole drive to the takeoff point was in
the dark, with us arriving to the site just as light was colouring the
sky. The Balloon looked amazing; it was glowing from the flames heating
the air inside.
We
boarded by climbing in over the side of the basket and the set up was
great with two rows of passengers on each side of the basket meaning
everyone got a front row seat, except you don’t sit down. The morning
air was sharp, and our pilot, Blake, told us that this was the best time
of day for balloon flight as the wind is at its most stable. Good to
have stable wind when you have no steering!
The
views while aloft were spectacular. As it was early morning all the
ponds were covered in mist. The sun rose shortly after we ascended and
that gave the landscape many more features. The patchwork of fields
spread out below us and gave the feeling of being an explorer off to the
land of the Lilliputians.
- Taking off in the balloon
- Panorama View
It
was always nice when Blake turned on the flames as we got a nice toasty
feeling in the fresh morning air. After a time of twisting and turning
up the valley looking at spectacular views, and even spotting a few
kangaroos we eventually had to land. Some cows had to be shooed off our
landing strip and Blake put us down without a bump! Pretty good flying I
would say!
- Flame heats air in balloon
- Kangaroo Spotted!
- Clear the landing strip!
Being
good sports we helped the guys pack up the balloon, as it would be a
big job for just Blake, Jason, and our ground crew of one, Daren! Plus
the faster the balloon gets packed up the faster we got to the champagne
breakfast.
- Landing the Balloon
We were driven to O’Reillys Vineyard for
the breakfast portion of the tour, and the setting was
gorgeous!Champagne was served on arrival, and there was a self service
continental breakfast… followed by a full cooked breakfast! Needless to
say I was stuffed after trying unsuccessfully to eat all that delicious
food.
- O'Reilly's Vineyard
Continental Breakfast
After
breakfast we had time to walk out in the vines, there was also a
beautiful creek and picnic benches to sit and let the food digest. The
vineyard produces some great wines, and there was a cellar door for
those who wanted to do a wine tasting, five wine tastes were included in
the tour.
- Creek & Picnic Spot
We reluctantly got back on the coach to return to the hotel.
It was apparent that everyone would have enjoyed a whole day at the
vineyard. I spent the ride back thinking how cool it was that I had
finally been up in a balloon!
Click to view HOT AIR's website!
