Heli-adventures in New Zealand’s South Island

Wānaka has a behavior of creating you are feeling as if the world has been turned up a notch. What we name regionally the ‘large skies’, and the various blues of the glacial rivers and lakes settle a lightweight on the panorama that photographers love and that’s greatest seen from a helicopter. 

The mountains look shut sufficient to the touch, even when they aren’t, as a result of the Southern Lakes area is visually beneficiant from the bottom, however helicopter experiences provide a specific sort of perspective: they sew the panorama collectively in a means roads can not, turning separate “locations” into one coherent, cinematic scene.

This isn’t about changing the traditional Wānaka pleasures, lake swims, hikes, vineyards, lengthy lunches. It’s about enhancing them. A helicopter expertise day could be the distinction between seeing Mount Aspiring within the distance and standing in excessive alpine terrain with nothing however rock, snow and sky round you. It could flip a “we might love to do this, nevertheless it’s too far” concept into a chic half-day plan. And for travellers who worth privateness, vacation houses with heli-pads present a discreet approach to arrive, depart, or disappear into the hills for a couple of hours.

Consider heli-adventures as a menu. Some are all-out bucket checklist. Others are surprisingly accessible even for smaller household budgets. 

The classics: Alpine and glacier landings

For those who solely do one helicopter expertise from Wānaka, many travellers select a scenic flight that features an alpine or glacier touchdown. The Southern Alps and the Mount Aspiring space are well-known for his or her dramatic glacial valleys and excessive peaks, and native scenic flights are designed round that drama.

A touchdown modifications the expertise. From the air, the terrain is breathtaking. On the bottom, it turns into visceral. The dimensions is all of a sudden clearer. Snow textures look carved relatively than clean. Glacial options and ridgelines that appeared like {a photograph} turn into a spot you possibly can expertise, even briefly. Many Wānaka helicopter scenic flights explicitly provide glacier or snow landings as a part of the expertise. 

That is additionally essentially the most versatile class. You may construct it as a brief “peak second” throughout a vacation, or as a centrepiece day with a number of landings and extra time within the mountains.

The vacation spot days: Milford Sound and Aoraki Mount Prepare dinner

One of many under-appreciated luxuries of helicopter journey shouldn’t be adrenalin. It’s time.

From Wānaka, operators provide longer scenic flights that transcend the fast area to legendary New Zealand icons like Milford Sound and Aoraki / Mount Prepare dinner. 

For guests who’ve restricted time, this generally is a approach to expertise the size of the South Island in sooner or later, shifting from lake nation to fiords or to the nation’s most well-known alpine massif, with out the “all day within the automobile” compromise. 

Begin in calm landscapes that encompass Wānaka but solely the bravest dare to traverse, and return having seen a much bigger model of New Zealand than you thought potential in a single outing.

Heli-hikes: For wilderness travellers

In case your model of luxurious is area and silence, heli-hiking is the class to discover.

Native guiding firms describe helicopter-accessed hikes as a approach to attain distant alpine environments and less-visited corners of the Southern Alps and Mount Aspiring space, with routes that may embody alpine mountain climbing and glacier trekking relying on the expertise chosen. 

What makes heli-hikes particular shouldn’t be merely that they’re “more durable” or “extra adventurous”. They’re typically the alternative. They are often curated to your pursuits and health, whereas nonetheless delivering the sensation of being correctly on the market, with no need to decide to a multi-day tramp or to spend hours accessing trailheads.

That is the heli expertise that feels most like getting into a personal model of New Zealand. You land someplace that appears untouched, stroll alongside ridgelines or beside alpine tarns, and the panorama belongs to you for some time.

Heli-ski: Backcountry snowboarding at its greatest

In winter, helicopters unlock a completely completely different expression of the area. The Southern Lakes are already identified for snowboarding, however heli-skiing strikes past carry traces into excessive alpine terrain.

There are established operators providing heli-ski experiences primarily based out of Queenstown and Wānaka, they usually spotlight the variety of terrain and entry to backcountry ranges. 

Even if you’re not a skier or snowboarder, it’s helpful context for a winter journey. Heli-skiing is a part of the area’s winter identification, and it influences the sorts of itineraries that bold travellers construct in peak season.

Heli-biking: Probably the most enjoyable approach to earn your views

Heli-biking is a type of Southern Lakes concepts that sounds outrageous till you do it, then it makes excellent sense. Why climb when you possibly can fly to the highest and spend your power and focus descending by way of a few of New Zealand’s greatest path networks?

Wānaka’s mountain biking scene is already sturdy, and heli-bike experiences are designed to pair a brief scenic flight with high-quality downhill driving; guided heli-bike excursions are very a lot a part of Wānaka’s driving providing. For instance, Bike Glendhu affords helibiking experiences that embody a flight to Falcon’s Nest on the park summit, adopted by guided driving on its path community.

This class is especially good for teams with combined pursuits. Some folks need the helicopter second. Others need the journey. Everybody will get the surroundings.

“Prime of the world” journey experiences 

Not each heli day must be constructed round a sport. A number of the most memorable experiences are merely about stopping someplace that feels inconceivable to succeed in.

A excessive alpine touchdown, a brief stroll to a viewpoint, a glass of one thing chilled within the chilly air, a pilot who’ll fortunately take a photograph of your second on the mountain prime. These are quiet moments that really feel joyously intimate regardless of the epic setting. That is the place helicopter journey turns into much less about “exercise” and extra about theatre. The Southern Lakes are filled with locations that appear like movie units, and a helicopter is a means of coming into the scene relatively than observing it.

That is additionally the place heli experiences can slot right into a luxurious itinerary with out altering its tone. You may maintain your journey gradual and restorative, then punctuate it with sooner or later that appears like a spotlight reel.

Helipads and personal touchdown areas

Within the Southern Lakes, helicopters should not solely about journey. They’re additionally a type of discreet entry.

A small variety of luxurious vacation houses and lodges within the area have helipads or appropriate touchdown areas. Typically that’s as a result of the property is distant. Typically it’s just because area and setting make it potential. And generally it’s about privateness: arriving with out fanfare, travelling with out being seen, and utilizing time extra elegantly.

For travellers who worth discretion, this modifications what a vacation can really feel like. You may spend the day on the lake, then carry out for an alpine touchdown within the afternoon. You may keep away from busy roads at peak occasions. You may construct a visit the place the transitions are as calm because the locations.

The vital level, for planning, is that this type of journey exists right here. It’s a part of the Southern Lakes’ luxurious vocabulary, even when most guests by no means see it.

Select your heli day

If you’re attempting to determine the place to spend your “one splurge”, it helps to decide on primarily based on the story you need to inform your self afterwards.

For first-time guests: a scenic flight with an alpine or glacier touchdown is essentially the most iconic, and it matches into virtually any itinerary.

For giant-ticket drama: a day mission to Milford Sound or Aoraki compresses the Southern Alps into one unforgettable day. 

For quiet and wilderness: heli-hiking is one of the best mix of entry and solitude.

For winter thrill seekers: heli-ski delivers the Southern Lakes at its most adventurous. 

For summer time enjoyable: heli-biking is pure pleasure, and it showcases Wānaka’s path tradition brilliantly. 

Nonetheless you form it, helicopter journey from Wānaka is in the end a shortcut to the area’s biggest asset: unadulterated landscapes. In a single day you possibly can transfer from lakes to glaciers, from vineyards to ridgelines, from the acquainted to the spectacular. It isn’t the one approach to see the Southern Lakes, nevertheless it is among the strongest methods to know them.

Kate Stinchcombe-Gillies

Kate Stinchcombe-Gillies is CMO of Launch NZ. Launch NZ represents a portfolio of luxurious vacation lodging in Wānaka and Queenstown – their ardour being to attach friends to the whole lot that makes this a part of the world so particular. If you want to be a visitor blogger on A Luxurious Journey Weblog with the intention to increase your profile, please contact us.