Prize-winning balls to fall over Hagley Park

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 9

Prize-winning balls to fall over Hagley Park

Thousands of people are expected at South Hagley Park this morning for the first big public event of Christchurch Airport jubilee celebrations.

The occasion is the PDL Goldair Big Prize Drop, in which 2000 coloured table tennis balls will be thrown from an aeroplane, like a largescale lolly-scramble. Fifty balls will be blue, and will go into a draw for the main prize — a return trip for two to Sydney, given by Qantas Airways. Two hundred and fifty green balls will represent prizes of PDL electrical goods. The rest of the balls will be yellow, and may be redeemed for consolation prizes of Mackintosh

toffees. The balls will be thrown from the PDL Tiger Moth which is the first prize for the PDL International Air The Tiger Moth will fly over the park near the Blenheim Road roundabout, at 1000 feet, dropping the balls in several batches. The centre of the drop zone will be marked by a banner, and a smoke pot will give an indication of wind direction. The drop will begin at 8.50 a.m. Paper planes Another event in the run-up to the celebrations is the British Airways paper aeroplane competition, billed as New Zealand’s first. It will be held at the Christchurch Town Hall Auditorium on Sunday,

March 22. The object will be to make a dart or paper aeroplane, and fly it from the upstairs section of the auditorium into the cockpit of a glider parked on the floor below. All darts which land in the cockpit will go into a draw for the prize, a fivenight visit to Singapore, flying British Airways. Entry forms may be had from Shell service stations, or at the Town Hall on the day. There will be an entrance fee of 10c, all profits going to the R.N.Z.A.F. Museum at Wigram.

The final prize draws for both the big prize drop and the paper aeroplane competition will be made at the air show, to be held at the airport on March 28 and 29.