The giant balloon, promoting Mike Pero, was inflated, then tethered in Pioneer Park in the centre of town. It attracted groups of young fans.
''I spotted it on my way to school so had to take a closer look - it's the first time I've ever seen a hot-air balloon up close,'' Paige Weir-Logan (9) said.
Balloon pilot Daryl McKee, of Auckland, said the structure took about half-an-hour to inflate and launch and twice that long to pack away at the end of a flight.
Ethelina Bell, of Auckland, part of the nine-strong Kiwi Krew travelling around the South Island with the balloon as a marketing tool, said Alexandra was the seventh stop and the first place the balloon had been able to be inflated as it was too windy in all the other towns.
