Balloon Fiesta

Well now you all have to put up with lotsa hot air ballon pics LOL! I have taken about 500 pics of hot air balloons this week and still have the night glow tomorrow night. I have gotten a few good shots so had to share them with you all.

It started on Tuesday morning when I looked out my lounge window to see 18 hot air balloons heading towards me...


Got some good pics as they got closer and closer...

This is across the road from our place...

This is the star attraction of the fiesta the Nightmare House, the guy has brought it out all the way from Brazil, tiz huge and a big hit with all the kids.

Took this one on the way to school, this is candyfloss which is Aislinn's second fave balloon. No idea why!! LOL

This is also on the way to school, loved how the cows were all milling round the basket being nosey.

Love this shot of the balloon flying over the maize...

Wednesday night we went to the 2nd annual Baskets and Burners parade down the main street of Carterton, got some primo flame shots...

and this....

Yesterday morning we got up at the crack of dawn and headed to CLareville for the mass take off, 24 balloons hitting the skies - awesome sights....



and inflating the haunted house - we were right under it when it took off...


Love the light in this shot, these balloons are carterton based...


and this one....


Mummy looking out the window of haunted house...

Off she goes....


All of them in the air...


Then we decided to race home before school and put out a bog paper cross in the paddock after being told they will land on them...



Dropped the kids off to school and as I came over the bridge I saw this over my house that is our barn and house in the bottom of the pic.


Do you know it takes forever to get in the drive, turn off the car, undo the seatbelt and sprint across the paddock, it was already down by the time I got there...


I was so stoked that they landed in our paddock, it was the last balloon we had seen take off before we left, I knew a couple of the passengers on board too so that was cool.


As I headed into the paddock ,Liz and Anita on their way to kindy saw it and pulled over, so they climbed the fence ot check it out, here it is going down.



Got some primo shots of it being pulled down...

and this is looking through the top as the nice warm air was coming out...

and closer, you can see everyone pushing the air out...

Looking back at our house, last window on left is my scraproom...

Then they squish it into a small bag...

We put Anita in the basket, she was too short to see out so....

This was her solution...


Lunchtime yesterday a balloon pilot went to school to talk to the kids about ballooning, we got Brian Bollard who is American, lives half the year here in Hamilton and half in Vermont, he makes his own balloons (in a library book at school he is called the king of the homemade balloon) fascinating to listen to.


The kids got to help lay out his balloon...


It was a one man balloon, here he is heading over the school...



Well that's it (thank god you all say!!) stay tuned for night glow pics after Saturday....