Heli-adventures in New Zealand’s South Island

Wānaka has a behavior of constructing you’re feeling as if the world has been turned up a notch. What we name domestically the ‘massive 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 supply a selected sort of perspective: they sew the panorama collectively in a means roads can’t, turning separate “locations” into one coherent, cinematic scene.

This isn’t about changing the basic Wānaka pleasures, lake swims, hikes, vineyards, lengthy lunches. It’s about enhancing them. A helicopter expertise day may 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 might 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 technique to arrive, depart, or disappear into the hills for a couple of hours.

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

The classics: Alpine and glacier landings

If you happen to 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 the sudden clearer. Snow textures look carved reasonably than easy. Glacial options and ridgelines that appeared like {a photograph} develop into a spot you’ll be able to expertise, even briefly. Many Wānaka helicopter scenic flights explicitly supply glacier or snow landings as a part of the expertise. 

That is additionally essentially the most versatile class. You’ll be able to 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 Cook dinner

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

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

For guests who’ve restricted time, this is usually a technique to expertise the dimensions of the South Island in someday, transferring from lake nation to fiords or to the nation’s most well-known alpine massif, with out the “all day within the automotive” compromise. 

Begin in calm landscapes that encompass Wānaka but solely the bravest dare to traverse, and return having seen an even 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 house and silence, heli-hiking is the class to discover.

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

What makes heli-hikes particular just isn’t merely that they’re “more durable” or “extra adventurous”. They’re typically the other. 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 entering into a non-public 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 wholly totally 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 based mostly out of Queenstown and Wānaka, they usually spotlight the range 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 formidable travellers construct in peak season.

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

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

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

This class is especially good for teams with blended pursuits. Some individuals need the helicopter second. Others need the trip. Everybody will get the surroundings.

“Prime of the world” journey experiences 

Not each heli day must be constructed round a sport. A few of the most memorable experiences are merely about stopping someplace that feels not possible 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 high. 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 seem like movie units, and a helicopter is a means of getting into the scene reasonably than observing it.

That is additionally the place heli experiences can slot right into a luxurious itinerary with out altering its tone. You’ll be able to preserve your journey gradual and restorative, then punctuate it with someday that appears like a spotlight reel.

Helipads and personal touchdown areas

Within the Southern Lakes, helicopters usually are 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. Generally that’s as a result of the property is distant. Generally it’s just because house 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’ll be able to spend the day on the lake, then carry out for an alpine touchdown within the afternoon. You’ll be able to keep away from busy roads at peak instances. You’ll be able to construct a visit the place the transitions are as calm because the locations.

The necessary level, for planning, is that this fashion 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 based mostly 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 suits into nearly 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 the most effective 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’ll be able to transfer from lakes to glaciers, from vineyards to ridgelines, from the acquainted to the spectacular. It isn’t the one technique to see the Southern Lakes, nevertheless it is likely one of the strongest methods to grasp 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 visitors to every thing that makes this a part of the world so particular. If you want to be a visitor blogger on A Luxurious Journey Weblog with a view to increase your profile, please contact us.