Flyin' High

And no, it's not because I had too much to drink (or anything else).

Today was our scheduled helicopter tour near here.  We checked in with the company at 9 am and learned it would be a beautiful morning for the tour.  We were flying at 11:30.  We killed a little time, then left for the hour drive to the helicopter place.

It was at Glentanner, near the base of Mt. Cook, the tallest peak in New Zealand, and part of the Southern Alps.  This is Mt. Cook from that location.



We learned that we had a 40-minute tour instead of 35-minute because it worked better for their schedules.  We were asked to keep it quiet though for the other 4 people in the helicopter who paid for the 40-minute tour.  We could do that.

We flew over the edge of a glacier here, and a lake in front of it.



The described tour was about taking the helicopter up and landing on snow (I guess that's a treat for some people).  Here's Gerard getting out of the helicopter.

So we weren't sure what to expect, but wow.  It was spectacular.  We landed literally on top of a mountain.  This is Mt. Cook from up there.

And the mountain range where we could see clouds starting to roll in.  I took lots of other photos, but too many for here.

Our 'copter on the snow.

 

And this lovely couple.

When we took off from there, it was like you see in those IMAX films where you fly over a cliff.  Wow again.

Then we flew by Mt. Cook and you could see a station down on the snow where climbers stage their climb of the mountain.



And we saw this avalanche waiting to happen.

Terrific flight.  Our pilot had flown in Vancouver for 5 years and had only been back for 2 weeks!  He commented on Gerard's Blue Jays cap and said his workmates were all cheering and carrying on about the Blue Jays.

I think I'd like to drive one of these things.  And the post on the right was at the helicopter site.  How appropriate.



When we were finished here, we headed back to our place for some lunch.  This is a shot of the lake produced from the glaciers.  Notice the colour is a turquoise because of the glaciers.  Beautiful.



We then decided to do a bit of a hike.  We were going by the Mt. John Observatory, which we thought we might like to do tonight.  But it was getting cloudy and is supposed to rain.  So we didn't bother, but we did go up to the top anyway.

We see these vehicles everywhere.  They're either minivans or small motorhomes.  Interesting name and logo for a rental company.  Most of their vehicles are this lime green and purple.

We then headed up the road further from where a hiking trail started.  It essentially was through pastureland and we had to go through a sheep herd.  That's always fun though.  They look at you like you're the strangest thing they've ever seen.  Maybe we are.  This ewe was baaing at her lamb which we didn't realize was on the other side of the trail, and us.  Gerard was baaing back and she kept talking to him...or the lamb.

All in all, another great day in New Zealand.  Someone we were chatting with at the helicopter place said to us that when it comes to great scenery, New Zealand is like Canada, just condensed.  That's probably pretty close to the truth.