To celebrate our second wedding anniversary and taking our business to another level with the purchase of NZ Life & Leisure, my husband and I celebrated with a bucket-list adventure by going up.

Words Sarah Perriam-Lampp

From our home in Methven, Mid Canterbury, clear mornings are sure to bring a sighting of the Adventure Balloons NZ rainbow colours in the sky. It is hard not to watch and wonder what it must be like up there. With the excuse of a wedding anniversary and expansion of our business, we decided to find out!

Joined by a family of five from Ashburton on a school holiday treat, we took to the skies on a picture-perfect morning in July – a record high pressure system blessing us with the most still, calm and tranquil air to be floating peacefully above the Canterbury Plains.

Rugged up in jackets and scarfs thinking it would be cold, we were proven wrong with the beautiful winter sun and the flames above keeping us warm. With the settled weather and the snow-capped mountain range, winter is the best time of year to go ballooning.

Gracefully we rose to 8,000 feet from the frosted paddock, sailing past Mt Hutt wishing we had binoculars to watch the school holiday skiers.

Chief Pilot Graeme Church, with nearly 40 years of hot air balloon experience flying in New Zealand and around the world (including a flight across the English Channel!) was a treasure to fly with.

A Cessna buzzed beneath us so far away it appeared to be a tiny fly, whilst Graeme pointed out the top of Mount Cook and as far as the end of Banks Peninsula.

I have loved doing things like hang-gliding, sky-diving, helicopters … so I wasn’t too worried about my time in the basket. On landing, my gracious husband happened to tell me how nervous he was at the start, but he has not stopped raving about it since.

That still, quiet, serene floating feeling will never leave me. It was truly one of the greatest things I have done, and would recommend to anyone to put on their bucket list. A must-do when visiting my backyard, Methven.