re: Franz Josef Glacier Heli Hike, New Zealand (Pics)

New Zealand does a great job with scenic overlooks.

I've never landed on a glacier. In 2009 when we were on the South Island we chose to overfly the mountains in a plane because you get to see more than if you just do one glacier (which in NZ they all pronounce "glay-sere"). Last year my mother landed on a glacier/mountain (not sure) somewhere near Queenstown and when she got back said she preferred the flight over actually landing on something.

We went with Air Safaris out of their headquarters at Lake Tekapo (although you can fly out of several other airports). This flight is called The Grand Traverse.




The previous flight had 8 people in an Airvan (not a big plane, you can see its tail on the right), we got lucky and just had the thiree of us in this Cessna 206.


Lake Tekapo in the upper left.




Coming up on Mt. Aoraki, the "cloud piercer."


Also called Mt. Cook, it's the highest peak in NZ.


This was in late November (our late May), so not as much snow as you might expect.


Flying over Lake Tekapo back to Lake Tekapo. I would not recommend this flight if you're afraid of flying or get motion sick easily because it was smooth as ice cream over the mountains but downwind of them over the lake there was some pretty heavy turbulence.