The Tranzalpine Train, Christchurch and Hot Air Ballooning

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Christchurch
April 21st 2008

Published: April 23rd 2008

The Tranzalpine train journey is: 'rated one of the world’s great scenic railway journeys'. Here's some blurb from promotional material. Of course I was travelling from Greymouth heading towards Christchurch, not from Christchurch to Greymouth, so you may have to read some of this backwards ;o) The TranzAlpine scenic train journey travels between Christchurch and Greymouth, from one coast of N... Read Full Entry

Photos are below

Photos: 46, Displayed: 21

Starting up

Testing the fuel is working!

Getting Ready for Hot Air Ballooning

Rae, Deb and myself

Small Helium Balloon Test

To test the strength and direction of the wind

Newton gets ready

Firstly cold air is pumped into the balloon

Balloon continues to inflate

Biggest balloon in New Zealand - the balloon envelope could hold 325,000 basket balls

Balloon lifts up

And we all jump in - there are 22 passengers and 1 pilot and 1 co-pilot

Fuel

Cables

Don't pull the red one. The pilot says 'red means dead', the pilot only uses this one when very near the ground for landing.

15 minutes after sunrise

Oxford Town

Canterbury District, NZ

Spot the snow

On the mountains

Newton joins the mile high club

One mile up, the pilot said we were travelling much more quickly than normal at around 30 knots an hour

Flying over fields

You can tell by my red nose

It took quite a while to warm up - Deb lent me her hat, bless her!

Balloon Silhouette

1st attempted landing

The bottom of the basket skimmed the tops of the trees

We couldn't land in this field

It was too dangerous because the field was full of deer and the stags posed a problem. As it's mating season the stags are potentially aggressive.

2nd attempt landing

We just missed these trees

We couldn't land in this 2nd field either

Because of stags - we head on to the field just over the fence

We finally land in the 3rd field

With only 5 minutes worth of fuel left

Balloon starts to deflate

23rd April 2008

Gray
non-member comment

CU
Here ra, Mandy. I do hope we see you down this away again some day. Be sure you bring Dawn next time!!! Have a safe flight home. XX

23rd April 2008

MandyB
Amanda B

To Gray - CU
Thanks Gray, lovely to see you guys too, yes will bring mum next time! Will try to call you in a minute x

23rd April 2008

Paddyy
Padmaja

Happy to see your blogs...
Hi Amanda...ur blogs are very much interesting...:-) am happy to share with you tht i ve got engaged...:-) Cheers, Padmaja

23rd April 2008

Juicy Lucy
non-member comment

Oi!
Where's my birthday card? (from last month!) XX

23rd April 2008

MandyB
Amanda B

To Padmaja - happy to see your blogs
Hello Padmaja, Thank you! Oh great news many congratulations on your engagement, what is his name? when do you get married, can I come to the wedding in India? ;o) x

23rd April 2008

MandyB
Amanda B

To Lucy - Oi!
Hiya, I could say oi - where were all the emails?! Sorry I forgot about your birthday (I'm sure you're not the only one) I don't have a diary with me so don't have a clue what's going on back home unless it's a date I've memorised. Did you have a nice time? x

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The Tranzalpine Train, Christchurch and Hot Air Ballooning

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