It was Sanna’s birthday weekend so I surprised her with something different, a hot air balloon trip over the hunter valley.

It started with getting out of bed at 4:45am before sunrise. They always do flights in the morning when the morning air is more still. We unpacked the balloon and they uses two large and very noisy ‘inflation fans’ to inflate the balloon canopy.

When it was 3/4 full they fired up the burners and it rose up. Everyone’s jumped in and we were off for an hours flight over the vineyards.

We saw lots of vineyard properties and 100’s of kangeroos which are so used to the balloons and so don’t hop away.

We landed with a small bump and the canopy fell around us. Afterwards we were allowed to walk inside the balloon canopy to look around.

Here are some photos and I have put two photos on my YouTube page.