Launch Complete

We left Hamilton at 4.30am this morning and headed to Balmoral School for the launch of the Flying High For Kids Project. I was a little nervous about the weather as we passed through a couple of showers on the way up. There was no need to worry, as the weather was fine with light winds in Auckland.

We set up the balloon and got ready for the first live cross to TV3’s Firstline  programme. TV3 covered the launch and there were a further 2 live crosses over the course of an hour. The NZ Herald was also down there to take photos of the balloon together with the children from Balmoral School.

Speeches were made and the 150 children present presented me postcards which they had all made earlier. I will hand them out to children of similar ages from other countries later in the project. We went into a class and one of the UNICEF New Zealand staff gave a talk on the importance of education.

All in All the launch went very smoothly and I am happy to finally have started the project.I look forward to the balloon’s first free-flight on Thursday. I will then be preparing for the balloon’s shipment to Australia, the next stop.

Below are a couple of links from today’s launch:

http://www.3news.co.nz/UNICEF-balloon-adventure-begins-in-Auckland/tabid/423/articleID/324408/Default.aspx

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11169394