Ballooning in Wakatipu Basin

Oh yes, you’re wondering if the title means what you think it means. It does. We weren’t carrying the balloon – the balloon was carrying us.

Elisse gave me an awesome present before leaving on this grand adventure – that we’d find a hot air balloon and take a ride in it. After our first attempt failed due to strong winds (i.e. the trip was called off morning-of, nothing dramatic), the conditions last week ended up being perfect, so out we went. And since it was a sunrise balloon ride, we went out early.

Turns out that ballooning is not a one man operation. The balloon itself is really heavy, and the basket is even heavier given that it needs to be sturdy, reliable, and carry a bunch of people. Even just getting the balloon off the ground was an interesting operation. I helped hold the balloon mouth open as two big fans spinning at 4000rpm started inflating the balloon with cold air. As it grew, the pilot, Bruce, walked around inside and helped spread out the fabric that was bunched together on the ground (at first, it looked like a long colorful snake). Eventually Bruce turned on the burners, letting some hot air into the balloon and causing it to start slowly floating upwards. Then, once the top of the balloon got to 92 degrees Celsius, we were off!

Taking off in a balloon is nothing like taking off in a helicopter. In the helicopter, you get an immediate sense of hanging in the air, and of fragility almost. The cabin gets pushed in the wind, you inevitably get a bit jerked around, and it’s super loud. The balloon is almost the exact opposite. You jump in the basket long before it starts leaving the ground, and that stable feeling persists after take off. It looks and feels almost like the earth is floating away downwards rather than you floating upwards. And apart from the occasional blast of the flame throwers (Wikipedia says they’re called ‘burners’), the only sound you hear is the wind in your hair and the clicks of cameras.

After we lifted off, we pretty much just looked around. We launched near the side of Lake Hayes, so got some fun water views right off the bat. The Remarkables range was looming to the south, and we could see Queenstown next to Lake Wakatipu, Arrowtown, and lots of wineries and ranches all around. At one point we ascended into the cloud that was hanging over us, and everything became silent and white. Then we dropped down a bit, and suddenly the world returned below us.

Landing a balloon is a bit of a challenge since they don’t exactly have a rudder. Bruce used the burners to move the balloon up and down, looking for different wind directions available at different altitudes. Lucky for this ballooning company, the Wakatipu Basin where we launched from has at least three golf courses (we were earlier than the first tee time, so no worries there) and is home to the largest deer farm on the South Island. Most smaller landowners apparently enjoy seeing balloons silently dropping into the field next to their house, so are quite happy to have their field used as a landing zone. Also the company gives the landing spot owner a champagne and dessert basket as a thank you, so needless to say the relations between them and most folks in the Basin are good.

We had a straight forward landing, followed by champagne and baked goods in a field somewhere near Arrowtown. Success!