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 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 fir