THE KING AND QUEEN OF THE AIR

Just who the first person was to fly in Wairarapa is, as they say, 'up in the air.'

Local Maori have a legend that one of their ancestors, the famed chief Nukupewapewa, strapped himself on a large kite to attack a paa on the banks of the Ruamahanga River near Moiki, Greytown, perhaps foreshadowing the invention of the hang glider.

The arrival of hot air ballooning in Wairarapa, however, can be much more accurately dated.

The first balloonist in New Zealand was an American, Professor Baldwin, who made the first New Zealand balloon flight in Dunedin in early 1889, using coal gas to inflate his oiled-silk balloon. He was soon followed by a number of hot air balloonists, but it wasn't until June 1894 that Masterton was included on the itinerary of these travelling performers.

Hot air ballooning in the 1890s was far from the safe pastime it now is. It was more akin to a circus performance, and filling the balloon with the hot air was part of the show. A 10 metre long and 60 cm deep trench was first dug in line with the prevailing wind, and an old water tank, with both top and bottom removed, placed at the downwind end of the trench. The trench was then filled with firewood and covered. The balloon was suspended on two high poles and placed over the water tank outlet. The fire was then lit, the wind carrying the hot air (including some sparks) along the trench, through the tank and into the balloon, like a crude blast furnace. A man stood inside the mouth of the balloon, armed with water to extinguish any sparks that landed on the balloon. The crowd was then invited to assist by pulling the skin of the balloon outwards, allowing the balloon to inflate.

As can be imagined, the process usually ended up with soot-filled eyes, burnt hands and even singed eyebrows.

Or worse.

Masterton's first balloonist was a graceful and daring young American woman, Leila Adair, the self–styled "Aerial Queen."Leila travelled New Zealand, performing acrobatic acts on a trapeze bar suspended under the inflated balloon, before dropping gracefully from the bar, and drifting to earth by parachute. Or at least, that was the way it was meant to work.

On Leila's first New Zealand ascent, in Auckland, things went a little awry when the balloon, which had risen to a considerable height, was blown out over the channel between Auckland and Rangitoto Island. Not wanting to parachute into the sea, Leila rode the balloon down until just metres from the waves. She then dropped into the sea, suspended by a life belt until she could be rescued by steamship. Her New Zealand adventures did not end in the waters of the Waitemata.

A Te Aroha ascent ended with a Waihi descent. In Cambridge she landed in the tops of some tall poplars. In Hamilton the balloon burst in mid-air while her Wanganui ascent was even more spectacular. She was unable to get sufficient buoyancy to inflate the balloon and it flew on a perilous journey through flagstaffs and chimneys before Leila was dumped unceremoniously in a fig tree.

Deatails of these adventures were reported in the local newspapers so the Aerial Queen's arrival in Masterton was awaited with great anticipation. A huge crowd paid their shilling entrance fee and congregated in Masterton Park to watch what they were informed would be the "greatest sensational feat ever performed in these parts." The huge crowd was to be disappointed.

Leila and her brother arrived at the ground in a cab, as arranged, and the dramatic inflation process was commenced. People stood open-mouthed as the balloon, said to be the size of a circus tent, slowly inflated. The men and boys helping to hold the balloon were jolted as the balloon rocked from side to side. The crowd's intrigue turned to concern however, as a small whiff of smoke was seen escaping from the top of the balloon. Before long it became a large whiff of smoke, then the whole balloon caught fire. The crowd was excited at the sight of the large balloon burning, but their excitement turned to alarm as they realised a man was trapped within the inferno. With the calico burning all around him the man was trapped within the balloon, and there were anxious moments before he managed to extricate himself, blackened and burnt but without serious injury.

Leila Adair sat in her cab watching the destruction of her balloon. Her brother did his best to help salvage what remained of the balloon but it was a hopeless case. The balloon was gone.

Leila’s brother stood and addressed the crowd, telling them that the balloon was beyond repair, and that it was going to cost £145 to replace. He promised that he and Leila would have a new balloon built in Wellington and would be back the following Saturday to give a free exhibition to all those who had paid. Not everyone was convinced, some even going so far as to say that the whole thing, including the burning of the balloon, was pre-planned and a swindle.

Many Mastertonians did have faith in Leila and the following Saturday each of the Wellington trains was met by a crowd, certain that the flamboyant aerialist would be on the train with her balloon. They were proven wrong each time.

Leila never returned to Masterton although she did have a new balloon made, a balloon she toured other parts of New Zealand with. The closest Masterton got to seeing Leila in the air was that Sunday when local wag G.S.W. Dalrymple sent a toy balloon, complete with doll attached to a trapeze bar, into the air from the Masterton Park.

It wasn't to be until 1908 that Masterton saw its first balloonist, and it wasn't the 'Aerial Queen' it was the 'Aerial King'.’ Before that, however, the first aviation death had taken place in New Zealand, a death rather bizarrely caused by drowning!

An aerialist calling himself "Captain Lorraine" (actually Aucklander David Mahoney) was making an ascent in a gas-filled balloon in Christchurch when his poorly inflated balloon was blown out to sea. The aerialist was unable to use his parachute and was seen to plunge into the sea with his balloon. He clambered on top of his partially inflated balloon as it floated for a short time but by the time a boat reached the site, a mile out to sea, Lorraine had drowned.

Noah Ezra Jonasson, Christchurch-born of Danish parents, was to be the first successful balloonist in Masterton when he made two ascents in the town in 1908. He seems to have learned his trade from an American, Professor Barnes, the 'Aerial King' who made a number of ascents in Dunedin in late 1907/early 1908. Barnes had a lucky escape in Dunedin when a parachute descent went awry, his life being saved by his landing in some telephone wires.

Jonasson made his first ascent in Masterton on 2 April, 1908, from the Showgrounds in Dixon Street, now the Cameron and Soldiers Memorial Park. A very large crowd gathered to watch his display which was slightly delayed because firewood used to inflate the balloon was too green and the balloon filled with smoke. Eventually the balloon was cast adrift and it shot up into the air with the Captain performing ‘clever gymnastic evolutions for the crowd. The balloon did not travel very far, nor ascend very high, however, and the Captain parachuted down into a paddock behind Bunny's Bush (now known as Garlands Bush, at the end of McKenna Street).

His next ascent, a week later, was said to be much more successful.

The newspaper said that although only little over a hundred people paid to enter the grounds, many were draped over the Dixon Street fence, and three hundred children from the nearby Central School had sneaked in free. One of those children was ten year old Clementina McKay, who, when recalling the event in an interview in the 1980's, said she could not remember much about the balloon, but could still remember the spanking she received for attending when she had been forbidden to.

The ascent was more impressive this time, the balloon rapidly rising then catching the gentle southerly breeze to drift over the town. Jonasson alighted from his parachute in land between Cole and Essex Streets, while the aerialist-free balloon continued over the town, eventually landing in Adamsville (Oxford Street). As the balloon passed over Adamsville (then largely in paddocks) it was said to have had curious effects on animals, two quiet horses going into all sorts of antics, while the tame cockatoo, then resident in the Adams' Bush, was said to have become very alarmed by the approach of the unmanned balloon.

Jonasson, unlike many other early aerialists, lived to an old age, dying in Thames in 1959. He is said to have undertaken his last parachute jump, from an aeroplane this time, in the 1930s. He broke a leg as he landed.

The advent of heavier-than-air flight put an end to the hot air balloonists until the 1960s, when the combination of coated nylon fabrics and butane burners enabled modern adventurers to take to the air again in hot air balloons.

In Wairarapa renowned potter Jim Greig from Carterton led the resurgence with his balloon, Bernina in the early 1970s.