REBECCA WALSH and photographer MARTIN SYKES head to a miniature Cape Canaveral, where ambitions are sky high and money goes up in flames.
It took six months to build but only 29 seconds to blast 12,000ft into the sky above Taupiri, near Ngaruawahia.
Ten minutes later, Martin Van Tiel's rocket parachuted back
to Earth, landing with a small bump in a neighbouring field.
The 2.7m-tall fibreglass rocket, which weighed 23kg, carried 5.5 kg - $2000 worth - of rocket fuel to climb 12,291ft into the atmosphere, leaving a trail of smoke and setting a New Zealand experimental amateur record, reaching around 900 km/h to get there.
"That's close to the sound barrier. It didn't get to supersonic speed but it was travelling at the same speed as a jetliner," Dr Van Tiel said.
"I was very pleased with the effort. It was like a real rocket.
"Apart from going to launches in the States, that's the closest you get to seeing a real rocket fly."
Dr Van Tiel, who has a doctorate in chemistry, was among hundreds of people taking part in the Rocketry Association's national launch yesterday.
His record-winning rocket, referred to as "the blue thing", cost about $5000 to build and has a small computer on board able to detect altitude.
It was one of about 80 rockets of all shapes and sizes launched throughout the day.
Children as young as four gave it a go, building their own versions from cardboard.
Members of the association get together every two months to launch their latest rockets. Each time they must get special launch clearance from the Civil Aviation Authority to ensure no planes fly through the area.
Association president Evan More, formerly a commercial diver who did a lot of demolition work, said the hobby required a lot of scientific know-how.
"It's a good safe hobby. A lot of people are interested in rockets because they never get to see them. These big rockets light up the whole sky. You can feel the shockwaves from them."
Dr Van Tiel, who runs a fireworks manufacturing business and was one of the masterminds behind Auckland's millennium fireworks, has been taken with things that go bang since he was a little boy.
"I was just fascinated with chemistry. I think it's a lot of young kids' dream to play around with that sort of stuff. It became a serious hobby and now a business."
