Dawes Family in New Zealand

Lift Off Levin

We have had a fantastic Easter weekend this year! It started with the trip to Zealandia on Thursday, then we hit the cinema on Friday and saw one of the best movies ever called How To Train Your Dragon (a must for anyone, you don’t need to have kids!) and then Saturday we made plans and headed up to sunny Levin for the night to enjoy the festival of Lift Off Levin.

In its 6th year Lift Off Levin is an Easter weekend spectacular! Over the four days they have balloon overload and have all sorts of exciting events, but the main reason we went was to the see the Night Glow.

Early Saturday morning the Easter Bunny came, not his normal day but as we were going to be away for the weekend, he came early, he left Bethany a note explaining why, she didn’t care – she just wanted the chocolate!

We set off late Saturday as Michael is now back into playing football and the traffic was quite terrible, it took nearly 3 hours to get the normal 1.5 hour journey. We booked the only room left in Levin at a cheap Motel. Upon arrival we were a little daunted at the fact the units were right next to the road and the train line, a train thundered past as we pulled up – we all looked at each other and said ‘sure we wont hear it when we are asleep’!

Unfortunately the news got worse and we had been double booked. Instead of the 1 bedroom unit with full bathroom and dining area, we were offered the only remaining room which was a 12 foot by 12 foot studio. As it was we were only staying one night and would be out till late we accepted. No two ways about it though, it was pretty awful and we wont ever stay again!

We headed off to the show grounds which was packed with people and a fairground style setup with a live band playing. In the main field the balloons were being blown up, we grabbed some food, a picnic blanket and settled down for the evening.

A total of 16 balloons were erected in the main circle, and as the night got darker the people grew and the excitement was amazing. We sat and watched the balloons light up to music and give a lovely show, it was really quite spectacular.

We had an amazing night, we left the showgrounds happy and really pleased that we had decided to go and see the event.

Definately a must-do for next year if you have never been – just make sure you book better accomodation if you intend on staying the night. Not normally somewhere we would stay over night though as it is a just a short drive home - but we had plans for the next day…