New Zealand Adventures: Chopper Hopping around Mt. Aspiring

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Mt. Aspiring is the 3rd tallest peak in New Zealand and sits within view of the tallest peak, Mt. Cook (named for the famous explorer). It is surrounded by a national park and is a popular mountain to climb in the summer months. Since the climb would take 4-5 days, we elected to fly up by helicopter. We had a number of choices flying out of Wanaka and chose Alpine Air. Our pilot was Nick, who welcomed us at the office, and cheerily informed us that this was also his first flight in a helicopter. He invited us to take care of the pleasantries (pay the bill) and we would be off.

The chopper was a 4-passenger model and Sandra sat in the back for the trip up. In a matter of minutes, Nick had the bird fired up and we were off. Looking down on Lake Wanaka and the surrounding hills, valleys, mountains and farms gives a whole new perspective to the magnificence of God's creation and to this place in particular. From the air it seems like you are creeping along. But as we got close to mountains we could see that was not the case. He brought us in for a landing on a brownish peak which I think he said was Mt. Alda. From there we could easily see Mt. Aspiring, Mt. Cook, and more.

Large weather fronts move eastward from Australia and across the Tasman Sea towards the west coast of New Zealand. These moisure-laden fronts dump lots of rain on that side of the island. When they hit the mountains, the moisture becomes snow at the higher elevations where it is normally colder, especially in the winter. They may get 300 inches of snow up there, which then packs down and becomes glacial ice. At this time of year that ices is melting and moving. Because of the cold, the highest peaks have snow year-round, much like Mt. Hood.

He took us up over the edge of the Alps and we looped around down the sides of Aspiring, gazing at the beautiful waterfalls, snow fields, crevasses, mountain lakes and rivers. It's conceivable that these are only seen from the air. I can't imagine climbing up into these areas. The sights were spectacular, to say the least. Sandra was busing shooting photos from her vantage point in the back seat and I had the video camera running from mine. We'll hope to post links to YouTube when the video is ready for viewing.

We marveled at Nick's skill in getting us up close to the mountain walls and down to almost touching the snow and ice. He told us that landing on a glacier at this time of year is dangerous. You would need crampons on your boots to keep from falling and the instability of the ice could result in shifting under the weight of the helicopter. So they do glacier landings only in the winter months when the snow is deeper. Deep crevasses lined the ice fields. They would also be hazardous for hiking. We did a second landing on the way back east and Sandra and I switched seats for the return to the Wanaka airport. The round trip lasted but an hour.

What an experience! Words are not able to convey the wonder. Hopefully, these photos will help. Click on a photo to enlarge.