Some of those who died in this morning's hot air balloon tragedy received the tickets for the flight for Christmas, a witness says.
All of the hot air balloon's passengers - five couples and an experienced pilot - were killed in the fiery crash near Carterton.
Police said they received
"around half a dozen calls from residents in the Somerset Road area reporting a hot air balloon in difficulty" around 7.30am.
Wellington District Commander Superintendent Mike Rusbatch said at this stage it appears a fire has ignited on board, causing the hot air balloon to crash in farmland close to the Clareville showgrounds.
Police said they are working with a number of agencies including the Fire Service, the Coroner's office, the Transport Accident and Investigation Commission, Civil Aviation Authority and the Department of Labour, to determine the cause of the crash.
Eyewitness accounts
RadioLive reported witnesses saw people trying to jump out of the basket after the balloon hit power lines nearby. The victims were also reported to all be from the Wellington and Kapiti Coast regions.
Resident Don Cunningham told TVNZ he saw the balloon make what appeared to be a controlled descent about half an hour after it took off.
"Conditions were perfect. There is hardly any wind so it wasn't moving very quickly," he said.
"I saw the canopy going down and then I heard some screaming and shouting and then suddenly a big pall of smoke."
Mr Cunningham said emergency services were quickly on the scene and the fire was extinguished shortly after.
David McKinlay, a Hornesberry St resident, said "It looked as if he had tried to take it higher. It was just flames and it was just a long streak of flames. Probably about 10 metres long. The impact must have been terrible."
McKinlay, who called 111, saw the flames shooting out of the basket of the dark blue and maroon striped balloon.
After alerting emergency services, he said the balloon was 150 metres in the air and dropped quickly, describing it as ''just a sheer flame as it hit the ground."
"It came down like a bloody rocket and then there was a big bang,'' he said.
Aurea Hickland lives over the fence from where the balloon landed, and saw the incident unfold.
"It was terrible," she said.
"We were just having breakfast and we have big windows that face out onto where the balloon was coming down.
"I got up to have a cup of tea and I looked out the window and saw the balloon coming down.
"But then it started to shoot up in the air.
"And I said to my husband 'Oh no the basket's on fire, the basket's on fire'.
"And it shot up in the air, which I guess was because of the heat, and we saw two people jump out and everyone was screaming - the screaming was just terrible - and then when the canopy went up in flames it just dropped.
"It was going up at a very big rate, I wouldn't like to say how high but it was a very long way up.
"We saw the two people jump and I said to Neil 'They won't survive', it was just awful."
"Neil ran out and then came back with two of the family members [who were waiting for the balloon to land] and one was saying that they had bought the tickets for their parents for Christmas.
"They just kept saying 'How are we going to tell our children."
Mrs Hickland has lived on Somerset Rd since 1996 and said she and her husband Neil had watched the balloons "hundreds of times".
"They're always flying over or landing near the neighbour's place - we don't really take any notice of them anymore."
Ballooning NZ director Lance Hopping is thought to be the owner of the hot air balloon, although it is not known if he was on board the flight. He has over 1000 hours of commercial ballooning experience.
The balloon is believed to be a Cameron A-210, which can carry ten passengers plus one pilot.
Hopping is the safety manager of the popular Balloons Over Wairarapa event, according to organiser Jonathan Hooker.
Power outage
There was a Transpower electricity outage immediately following the accident, although it is not known how widespread the power cut was.
"The power went out at our place in Carterton," said local Bella Biggs.
"They hit a power pole. Power has only just come back on."
Superintendent Rusbatch said a disaster victim identification team is heading to the scene to begin the process of identifying the bodies.
"This is an absolutely tragic incident and our thoughts are with the families of the deceased. We are in the process of notifying next of kin however we will not be releasing any names until all next of kin have been advised.
"We also have a number of police staff who are working with the families of the deceased to provide them with the support they need at this very difficult time."
A no fly zone is also in place at the scene.
Police say they have no details yet of what caused the early morning crash in clear, bright conditions with minimal wind. The region is well known for its hot air ballooning.
The accident is the worst New Zealand aviation disaster since the Erebus crash.
Tough day for Carterton
Carterton Mayor Ron Mark said it was his toughest day.
"It's certainly the hardest time that I've seen in my time back home.
"And it's not just Carterton it's also the whole of the Wairarapa.
"For me as the mayor of Carterton I'm conscious of supporting the wider services personal, police and fire, because it's obvious that they're going to know people who were on that balloon."
He said that iwi representative Mike Kawana and Reverend David Cole had both been invited onto the scene to bless the site of the crash.
Carterton District Council was supporting police and fire staff who were using the Carterton Fire Station as an operations base, and the Carterton Events Centre would be made available to families of the victims.
"It's a small tight knit community... it's very tragic for New Zealand but for a little community like ours it hits home," he said.
"The community is bracing itself for names that it knows."