Glacier Heli-Flight!
Updated: Oct 9
Wednesday 30 September
What a day!!!
Early risers under so so skies; a call from Inflite Franz Helicopters to say it was too cloudy for a 9.30am flight, but 11.30am looked good. Wrapped up warm and took only the bare essentials (sunnies, phone & camera) and checked in at 10.45 with 2 other couples… given the all clear at 11am and we were off!!! Our guide marked our hands after consulting with the numbers on the scales - the two lightweight youngsters got a star indicating that they got the front seats and us chunkier oldies got the back row!
We were walked down through the bush track to the helicopter landing pad out by the Waiho River where a previous flight were about to board their helicopter, then ours flew in a few minutes later, we went through our safety briefing again (i dropped a layer as I was far too hot already) and we were led out to the pad to board the chopper. Two birthday celebrations on board - it was my 60th birthday treat and the guy next to Louis was about to turn 50 in a couple of days time.
Shortly before 11.30am we were strapped in and ready to take to the air. The next 30 minutes passed in a whirlwind of excitement - we flew in up the right hand side of Franz Josef Glacier, up over The Divide and over to the Tasman Glacier, with a big loop down towards Aoraki Mt Cook, the Tasman Glacier Lake then back up to the top of the Tasman Glacier, 12kms above the lake.
We set out over green farmland and then rainforest - with Lake Wombat visible on the righthand side. Looking over the pilot's shoulder gave a great view up to the Franz Josef Glacier - then suddenly we were flying above the icy & snowy crevasses of the glacier, looking down onto the fascinating snow shapes and textures, and catching glimpses of the aquamarine ice chasms below.
We flew up and up until it felt like we were on top of the world - we crossed The Divide and suddenly we were on the eastern side of the Southern Alps, heading down the Tasman Glacier towards the Glacier Lake and towards Aoraki, Mt Cook over on the right.
It was phenomenal looking down from the tops of mountains, at the glaciers and steep walls of icy snow coating their slopes. In places the snow was carved into fascinating shapes by the sun & wind, and there were also cracks visible which may soon give rise to an icy avalanche. From my position behind the pilot I also got a great view of the rearview mirror under the aircraft, looking straight back underneath our seats!
There were a number of helicopters already landed up near the very top of the Tasman Glacier, so our pilot circled around a wee way and came in to land near our fellow Inflite choppers and a red & white snowplane. We were about a km or two from the top of the glacier, and all climbed out into the deep, crunchy snow, taking care to avoid the still rotating blades above us and at the rear of the aircraft, and spent 10 minutes or more just revelling in the awesome beauty & majesty of the place.
Our colleagues kindly took some photos for us, and we got the obligatory snow selfies too. I was intrigued by the crunchy top layer of snow which you could pick up like a plate - as your boots disappeared almost up to knee level in places!
Looking around it was mindblowingly epic- surrounded by the highest peaks in Aotearoa NZ. Glad I remembered to take a pano especially for Mrs VdB!
If you look carefully, there's a wee red dot on the top of the rocky escarpment on the left of us… it's the Tasman Saddle Hut! 14 bunks and just $30 per night! Longdrop toilet and no heating!!
And the last pic above is Louis in his happy place - mountains and snow make him so happy. His late father was a climber, I wonder if that would have been Louis' hobby if he had been in his life for longer. 💔
Sadly, after about ten minutes up on the snowy glacier, we were summoned back to the helicopter. We swapped sides with the other birthday couple so that we each got a different view flying back, and we clambered back in reluctantly and strapped ourselves in again for take off.
WOW! Simply spectacular! Words and photos cannot do our experience justice - we were so fortunate to get such a perfect day to be out there. We circled over our neighbours, swung back down the Tasman Glacier again for a fabulous view of the lake which was full of icebergs after a fairly recent glacial calving event on the day we were staying at the Lake Pukaki Freedom Camp - actually, time flies, that was over a month ago!
Being in a helicopter we got to swoop down quite low over the mountain tops, getting up close and personal with the magnificent Southern Alps.
The flight back on the Western side of The Divide was fascinating too - the cloud had rolled in over Franz Josef Glacier and it looked incredible. Thanks Captain! That was a phenomenal experience - what a great pilot & guide!
We were absolutely buzzing as we disembarked and walked back to town - what a privilege to have enjoyed such an amazing time out on the glacier and flying over the snowy Southern Alps. Highly recommend!!!
Lunch at Banjo then a siesta after all that excitement followed by a walk up to Lake Wombat… where it started raining on us. We parked at the Alex' Knob free carpark along the Glacier View Road, and set off on an "Easy" walk which turned out to be a whole lot of uphill on my tired knees. There were fascinating forest features along the way - love the patten in the centre of the ponga tree trunks… top right of the montage had been cut a while back; bottom left of the montage must have been newer as it was covered in a gelatinous sap.
We got to Lake Wombat, sat on the bench and admired the view as the rain started in earnest. Within minutes of our arrival the smooth reflective surface had turned into a dappled, dark pointillism reflection and we were getting rather wet! We slithered back down to the car - trying to spot the tui, korimako and piwakawaka that we could hear in the bush around us.
Settled in for dinner, an episode of Ted Lasso and photo downloading and viewing! It took a while…
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