{"id":340048,"date":"2026-03-21T01:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/340048\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T01:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:53:09","slug":"balloons-over-waikato-the-zuru-connection-to-the-hot-air-balloon-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/340048\/","title":{"rendered":"Balloons over Waikato: The Zuru connection to the hot air balloon festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen we were kids, Mat built a miniature hot air balloon as part of a school science project, winning the NZ science fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat little experiment turned into a small business, selling hot air balloon kitsets at Balloons Over Waikato.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Zuru is a global business spanning toys, fast-moving consumer goods and construction, with products sold in more than 120 countries.<\/p>\n

The Nightglow has been held at the University of Waikato for a long time, before it was moved to Claudelands Oval.<\/p>\n

This year, it is back at the uni, which was great to see, Mowbray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe university is a place a lot of people in the region connect with, so bringing the event back there feels like bringing it back to somewhere that already holds a lot of memories for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ZuruZuru co-founder and chief executive Nick Mowbray.<\/p>\n

He said his favourite part about the Nightglow was how children reacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best part is seeing the excitement it creates, especially for kids. When the balloons light up the sky, and you\u2019ve got thousands of people sharing that moment together, it sticks with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nightglow is a free ticketed event, taking place tonight, from 4pm.<\/p>\n

For more information, including the event schedule, visit balloonsoverwaikato.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen we were kids, Mat built a miniature hot air balloon as part of a school science project,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68,95,83328,1522,20388,19555,5071,5131,1888,51584,19476,111,43,139,1526,69,1523,223,1961,2044,61,1865,1524,1533,1525],"class_list":["post-340048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-air","tag-and","tag-balloon","tag-balloons","tag-connection","tag-evening","tag-feature","tag-festival","tag-first","tag-hot","tag-lifted","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nightglow","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-the","tag-this","tag-time","tag-to","tag-today","tag-waikato","tag-will","tag-zuru"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}