Hot Air Ballooning in the Gold Coast
@adrenalineau | @hotairgoldcoast
I have been so lucky to do hot air ballooning a few times and each time has been so unique. This time was based in the Gold Coast hinterland and it was so beautiful seeing my ‘backyard’ from above. The Hot Air Gold Coast staff were incredible, the weather could not have been anymore perfect and to top it off, there was a proposal! SO adorable!
Hot air ballooning is a morning thing so it does require you to wake up early. I am a morning person so it doesn’t bother me to get up at 3 am especially if it involves an experience like this.
It is totally worth the early wake up call!
Here is a quick itinerary of our trip:
We had to leave around 3:45 from Brisbane to meet at Canungra at 5. Just an FYI, the company does arrange pick up locations from selected Gold Coast hotels. Once we were all ready to go, they took all of us to the launch site where we would hop on the balloon and float away. This is one of my favourite parts of the experience, it is so amazing to watch the crew prepare the balloons while the sun rises. It is such a sight. Little fun fact, we were in one of the biggest balloons in the Southern Hemisphere. It was huuuuuge!
Around this time we were in the air enjoying the beautiful views from above. It was so peaceful. This time of year (July) on the Gold Coast is pretty cold but once you’re in the basket it gets quite toasty because they use the fire to keep the balloon up. Our flight was roughly 30 minutes which is plenty of time to soak it all in. If you want more time just ask the company and I’m sure they can sort something out for you. When it was time to land, the pilot found an open field for us to land safely. I learnt on this trip that the company has arrangements with a few of the properties owners so don’t worry – it’s totally cool that they land there! After we landed we packed up the balloon, got picked up and headed to breakfast.
One of the most asked questions I get in regards to the balloons is WAS IT SCARY?
No not at all. I am TERRIFIED of heights but for some reason being in the basket doesn’t scare me. It is so calm, so beautiful and the last thing I think about is the height aspect.
BOOK your trip with Adrenaline!
Picnic with Alpacas!
@mountviewalpaca | @canungravalleyvinyards
Picnics and Alpacas… together? When I found out that you can have a picnic with an alpaca I had to see what this was all about! This is not something you see everyday and if you ask me it’s freakin’ awesome… but before I get too excited, lets back track.
Mountview Alpaca Farm is located in O’Reilly’s Canungra Valley Vineyards (roughly an hour from the Gold Coast) where you can walk, feed, pat and even better, have picnic with Alpacas! Our morning could not be any more perfect because this is where the Hot Air Gold Coast finished off their experience with breakfast.
ps – we did NOT book the hot air ballooning and the picnic together, they were completely seperate. You will have to arrange the picnic by clicking HERE
Once we finished our breakfast with Hot Air Gold Coast we wandered around the vineyard until our friends Ash (@ashleighbridget) and James (@jamesvodicka) arrived. We picked up the basket of food, a bottle of handcrafted wine and a few alpacas and found the perfect spot to set up near the creek. If you like red wine I highly recommend the Bernard Chambourcin blend. It was so delish.
The alpacas are super friendly and get along with humans well. The staff were always wandering around checking on the alpacas and making sure people were treating them with kindness. They swap out the alpacas so they’re not always ‘having picnics with humans’ so don’t worry.. the pacas are treated very well and are in good hands 🙂
This is something you should definitely book in advance because they do get very busy!
You can checkout the prices and book HERE
ps bring your own picnic rug. I got mine from the Wandering Folk