A Birthday or a Mother's Day Treat? The voucher was my gift to Mon's Birthday last year (March 2010). Supposed to expire within a year... but due to popular demand, I was able to get a booking only on the 8th of May this year. In time for Mother's Day celebration :-).
The forecast was cloudy and rain. We rang Balloon Sunrise to reconfirm the flight a night before. It's our first time so a bit excited. Meeting place was at Belgownie Estate, Yarra Glen at 6:00 a.m. , so we left the house around 5 a.m. The pilot was on the phone trying to reconfirm the weather... We're not very confident, current forecast was saying that this trip could be cancelled. But the pilot announced after a few minutes of waiting that we're going ahead. He briefed us of what was expected from us. Teamwork.
We left Belgownie Estate and drove uphill to test the wind. It was foggy and quite cold. We decided to stay inside the van with 2 good looking men busy taking pictures of themselves. Meantime, the guys outside released small balloons twice or thrice... to check the wind (I guess). Then, we saw them talking seriously. 'Oh no! Are they going to come back and tell us that today is not a good day to fly?"
The other passengers and the driver came back... The flight was still on but we needed to find another place.
Later, we saw 2 hot air balloons already flying from afar. "This is it!", I thought. They were able so it means we could.
We continued our journey away from the other hot air ballooners... Then stopped. They let us walked to a grassy vacant land. Setting up the hot air balloon was done with both the staff and passengers' helping hands. It's a bit pricey but I think it's a good team building exercise.
We loved it.. being on top. I'd anticipated that it would be cold up there but it's not. The Yarra Valley was beautiful. I'm sure, Mon who is scared of heights, would love to fly again (given another voucher hehe). The flight was so smooth... great sights.. overlooking the farms, hills, isolated houses. We saw a big shadow of our balloon surrounded by rainbow over the clouds... an art in which God was the artist. 
We landed after an hour and a half trip. Taking the air off the balloon, putting the giant balloon inside the big bag, getting along with other passengers... all these activities made this trip a memorable one.
The trip ended with a sumptuous Champagne Breakfast inside a reserved dining room at Belgownie estate overlooking the vineyard, along with the pilot and the other passengers.