As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, the phone call to Southern Alps Air regarding the flight this morning was successful…we were overjoyed to learn that we had to get to Wanaka Airport pronto! The weather could not be anymore perfect if we wished for it; clear blue skies, no wind and brilliant sunshine. We met our pilot Dean at the landing strip and went through a safety briefing, before boarding the small 6 seater aircraft.
Once Ben was safely stowed in the back seat, Nicola took her position as Co-Pilot (and asked “what does this button do?!”)!
After Dean went through the final checks and taxied out to the runway we started our climb up and out of Wanaka. The views of the Southern Alps, Wanaka Township and Lake Wanaka were spectacular, we had definitely got the best day for it.
As we flew over Treble Cone Ski field into the heart of Mount Aspiring National Park Dean talked us through our flight path and what we were looking down onto.
The snow capped peaks of endless mountain ranges were visible as far as the eye could see. The majestic Mount Aspiring came into view on our right hand side; at 3027 metres it is the highest peak in NZ outside the Mount Cook National Park.
We also had a great view down onto the Rob Roy Glacier.
As we neared the coast we could look down the river valleys out to the Tasman Sea, whilst still cruising high above the awesome glaciers.
We swung out over the sea in preparation for entering Milford Sound by the northern entrance, and whilst doing so Nicola could hear over the co-pilots headphones that we were in for some turbulence as we hit the 6 knots blowing out of the Sound.
You could understand from flying in the narrow opening how Captain Cook missed the entrance to Milford Sound twice on his journeys along the coast, as it is completely hidden from the open ocean (picture above).
We then cruised over the entire 16kms length of Milford Sound before coming into land at the small airstrip.
Once safely on the ground we jumped out of the plane and walked around to the Milford Sound Wharf, where we boarded our boat to head out onto the Sound.
As we started our journey out of the harbour we were joined by a pod of friendly bottlenose dolphins; they seemed more than happy to chase our bow wave. As they jumped into the air beside the boat they turned their heads to take a closer look at who was onboard.
We passed Bowen Falls (Lady Bowen Falls), named after the wife of Sir George Bowen, one of NZ’s early governors in the 1870s. Falling 160 metres from a hanging valley in the Darren Mountain Range.
Mitre Peak, one the of the tallest mountains in the world to rise directly from the sea floor towered above us at 1692 metres. Pictured below on the left hand side of the photo. It’s sheer cliff face stretched one mile high.
As we travelled out to Dale Point, the northern entrance to the Sound that we had flown over that morning, we turned and started our journey back. We stopped at Seal Rock, thus named for the NZ fur seals who inhabit this craggy rock face; and then Stirling Falls. With a drop of 146 metres, they are the 2nd largest permanent waterfall in the fjord, and are fed by glaciers situated in the mountains behind.
As the cruise ended we made our way back to the plane and started our return trip, taking a different route to the one we took that morning.
This time we were in the middle seats, sat next to each other.
The journey back was just a stunning, taking us over glaciers, rivers and Lord Of The Rings film sites.
Back at Wanaka Airport we said goodbye to Dean our pilot and the Australian couple who had travelled with us.
The day had been everything we had hoped for and more!
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