Hot Air Ballooning! Thanks Belkinites!

The day has finally dawned (well, not quite, urgh, black and cold) that I finally use my wonderful leaving gift. What better use of the "RedBalloon" gift voucher than a Hot Air Balloon ride over Christchurch and the Canterbury Plains?

04:30am, Marisa wakes up bleary-eyed to the tinny sound of her mobile's alarm clock.

04:31am, Marisa still can't find her mobile in the pitch-black dark to kill the alarm clock.

04:35am, Having successfully navigated the ladder down from her top bunk (remember: Top Bunk Forever), Marisa now stands outside the room and rings the weather check number...

"Thank you for calling" blah blah blah "the flight is ON, repeat the flight is ON."

Huh? Oh, sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair (different brushes) and get downstairs for 05:00am pick-up! Yippeeeeee! Never been so happy to get up so early!

05:15am, A minivan pulls up at last and Marisa sprints to the van when she reads the writing on the side of the van and realises this is her ride, completely MISSING the would-be-tell-tale sign that it is towing a trailer with a giant BASKET on it. Doh!

06:00am, having picked up the pilot in a mall carpark (how glamorous) and a lot of other tourists along the way, we have arrived in a damp field in the middle of nowhere to begin unpacking and inflating.

On a side note - after unpacking the balloon - all the women head towards the building at the far end of the field when told this is where the restrooms are. I guess you had to be there, but it was hilarious so see about 12 women racing for 1 toilet, so competition was fierce...2 Japanese women were in the lead, followed closely by a middle-aged British lady and then myself. The Japanese women walk past the Men's toilets and are confused, they continue hesitantly on to the next building... I spy the small "Female" sign on the side of the Men's toilets and shout "it's here!" and make a run for it, successfully overtaking everyone to arrive first. This sparked a race in my wake with the pack suddenly changing directions after following the Japanese women. Of course, being the proper and politely raised person that I am - I let the Japanese women in first. My mummy would be so proud!

Then followed about 45 minutes of waiting for the balloon to be inflated - actually quite funny to see the photos at different stages...

Oddly enough, fog was rolling in and it suddenly looked very cloudy and eery. As the balloon air was heated up enough for it to right itself and the basket, we all suddenly had to scramble to get into the basket - I just managed to hand my camera to the guy left on the ground to take a picture and hand it back before we floated off.

We floated over the field, and then the treetops surrounding the field, and then... couldn't tell you because the fog was so thick I only saw grey - below, around, above, just grey, grey, grey. They almost aborted, but I campaigned to go on since it was my last opportunity! So we flew higher and broke through the fog. It was eery and magical all at once. A carpet of fluffy (admittedly grey) cloud, rolling up to the foot of the Southern Alps. The sun was shining brightly above the fog, so I actually took some very weird pictures of the SHADOW the balloon created on the fog! (See the first picture below,all the way on the left there's a 'blob'). The only reason I knew we weren't very high (that and the pilot telling us we were about 500ft high) was because I could hear cows moo-ing below in the grey carpet. All below was just grey cloud, with an occassional "MOO" coming out of nowhere! It was awesome!!!

We floated for a while and then came back in for landing. Unfortunately, because of the fog, we couldn't see anything until we were about tree-high... we narrowly floated over a farm with its buildings, scared the beejeezus out of the cows as we started dropping down in their field, and took the top off a tree in the process! The landing was super smooth and I jumped out to help pull the balloon down.

Then came the deflating and packing and quite possibly the BEST bit of the entire experience! As we had to pack the balloon back into its huge bag, there was residual air trapped in the material. I (facetiously) offered to "stage dive" off the trailer onto the heap of material. The pilot thought it was a good idea and I ended up launching myself into the air onto the balloon pile twice (ending with everyone trying to pack me into the bag on the second jump). I think they were joking... :P One of the nice Japanese women came up to me when she was leaving to tell me she enjoyed being on the flight and thought I was funny and very pretty...

Did I mention this was AFTER everyone had a glass of champagne??? Brilliant experience, DEFINITELY would do it again!