{"id":128,"date":"2011-05-23T15:31:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T03:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/?p=128"},"modified":"2011-05-31T09:10:09","modified_gmt":"2011-05-30T21:10:09","slug":"one-of-the-top-hundred-things-to-do-before-you-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/2011\/05\/23\/one-of-the-top-hundred-things-to-do-before-you-die\/","title":{"rendered":"One of the Top Hundred things to do before you Die"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 21th<\/sup> \u2013 Day 8: Cappadocia<\/strong><\/p>\n

WOW ballooning over Cappadocia, they say it is on the top 100 things to do before you die list and I can see why.\u00a0 Except for the early rise it was simply fabulous.\u00a0 We were there in the early dawn watching them fill the balloons and one of the things that made it such an experience was the number of balloons.\u00a0 I reckon there could have been 100 or more and they were rising from all over the area.\u00a0 It took a little while and there was a real buzz of excitement in the air as the balloons started lifting into the sky.\u00a0 We were off the ground at 6.10am. It was so smooth that apart from the view you would hardly know you were moving.\u00a0 The view was out of this world as Cappadocia is an amazing place with all the rock formations.\u00a0 It was a beautiful morning and we just drifted amongst the other balloons now and then going down into the valleys.\u00a0 There were times when you could almost touch the rocks.<\/p>\n

It was all over much too quick, we were up for about 50 minutes.\u00a0 These guys were really good we drifted over the edge of a small town across the top of some power lines over a motorway and they were able to land it on the trailer.\u00a0 We had a glass of champagne to celebrate and were whisked back to our hotel for an 8 o\u2019clock breakfast.<\/p>\n

We were staying two nights here at the Dedeman Cappadocia hotel so we didn\u2019t have to have our bags packed.\u00a0 This hotel probably got an 8 rating even though both Fifields and us were put in suites.\u00a0 The hotel was reasonably old but comfortable.<\/p>\n

Cappadocia is the area, we were staying in Nevsehir. We headed off to Goreme which is a museum area where there is some churches carved out of the rock.\u00a0 A few frescos and stuff all, very interesting.\u00a0 We had a bit of an incident in one of the churches. We were waiting there in our group to go in when this French guy tried to push in.\u00a0 The guide told him a few times to go to the back of the queue which he ignored.\u00a0 When it was our groups turn to go in he came in with us.\u00a0 The Colonel (Howard, one of the older gentlemen in the group with a cane and a bushy moustache) went and stood in front of him.\u00a0 The guy gave him a shove and it was all on for a minute until this guy was virtually turfted out of the church by the group.\u00a0 Message here was don\u2019t tangle with the old guys.<\/p>\n

We were then off to a pottery place.\u00a0 I reckon the guides don\u2019t get paid they live on tips and commissions, however it was interesting with very intricate workmanship.\u00a0 We ended up with something in Margaret\u2019s bag which has to be packed carefully.<\/p>\n

At lunch we had Gozleme, a Turkish pancake which was really nice but it took ages to come out as each base was handmade and time consuming to make by the ladies as the guy did the cooking.\u00a0 This upset some and we were all a bit longer than our allocated hour.<\/p>\n

We spent the afternoon roaming around the area looking at rock formations.\u00a0 Things like the sitting camel, the kissing cousins, the three sisters and others with rude descriptions. \u00a0We were back in the Hotel for 5 o\u2019clock and headed down for happy hour before dinner.<\/p>\n