December 9th, 2019
I woke up around 6:30 am to a glorious looking day, better
than had been forecasted. I had planned
on spending around 3 days in the Mount Cook (also known by its Maori name as
Aoraki) with a few hikes in mind and I had contemplated splurging on a 50
minute sightseeing tour aboard a small plane.
It was $395 NZD (about $350 Canadian), so the priciest activity so far on
my trip but I figured it had to be done.
I had envisioned that it would be the following day as it had the best
forecast but from Lake Pukaki I was closer to the aerodrome then the Mt. Cook
campsite, where I was headed next, and the conditions were perfect so why not
do it now! I fired up my laptop and
amazingly was able to book for the 9 am flight, in two hours time.
Good morning Mt. Cook!
Heading to the aerodrome:
Arriving at the small aerodrome I entered Air Safaris
building. There were just a few ground
crew behind the counter and when I mentioned that I was booked for 9 am, I was
told that that wasn’t going to happen. “Let
me check what we can do”, the 30 something year old Japanese lady said. I was thinking that I wasn’t going to be flying
that day and might have to return tomorrow or the next day. “Is the 11 am flight okay?” Absolutely.
It turns out that for the past few days, since the weather was not good
for the sightseeing tours, they had been using the planes to fly stranded
travellers to Christchurch due to that washed out bridge north of Timaru that I
mentioned about in my last post. They
were only now starting to resume normal activities.
I headed into Lake Tekapo, just a few kilometres away, to
kill an hour and a half which was actually great in that with the nice weather,
the views were much better than the previous couple of days, I saw the place in
its glory.
Lake Tekapo in the sun!
The Cessna Grand Caravan, a 14 or 15 seater plane, arrived a
bit late from it’s 10 am run so we stepped out on to the tarmac around 11:30. There were a few couples, two older ladies, a
German couple with their 3-4 year old boy…and me. The young captain Justin, probably in his
late 20s or early 30s, stood up on the small moveable stairs by the rear door
and introduced himself and asked us to stand in our groups. I had looked at the flight plan and figured
that sitting on the left hand side of the plane should be the best for the views. The pilot, Justin, told me to step onboard
first since I was alonge and go to the front of the plane. I climbed the stairs and in a bent over
position walked towards the front. “Sit
on the right” Justin said. Damn I
thought, there goes my plan. “In the co-pilot’s
seat” he added. Sweeeet!!!
Looks easy doesn't it?
Your new co-pilot ladies and gentlemen:
He loaded the rest of the passengers including 3 last minute
arrivals so it was a full flight. I got
to put on the headset for the flight, so I was able to hear all of the radio
transmissions, Justin’s announcements to the passengers plus talk with him one
on one. The take off was
exhilarating. So cool to look out the
front window while accelerating down the runway…reminded me of going for a
flight in a small plane with my friend Marius in Victoria last May.
Take off:
We began by flying over Lake Tekapo and its lovely turquoise
blue waters. It was neat to see some
small lakes beside that were dark blue as they came from springs and not glaciers,
great contrast. We cruised over the Godley
River at about 4500’ which was carved out by a glacier and the shingle valley
floor is over 2 kilometres wide and is criss-crossed by river channels. Near the end of the valley I noticed a long
private airstrip with a big house nearby and some big grassy fields. I asked Justin about it and he said he’d tell
the rest of the passengers too, so he switched to the intercom and mentioned
that it was one of New Zealand’s most remote sheep farms, accessibly by ATVs
over riverbeds but when the waters rose, only by plane.
Hmm...can you tell which one is man-made?
Near the end of that valley we continued to climb up to 6500’
as passed between a few mountain ranges and over the Murchison glacier, New
Zealand’s second longest glacier at 16 kilometres in length. Next was the head of the longest glacier, the
Tasman which is 29 kilometres. Crossing
what is known as the Southern Alps, we saw some of the Franz-Josef glacier, a popular
destination spot when travelling up the west coast of the island. Unfortunately, low cloud had rolled in and we
couldn’t see the coastline.
A recent dusting of snow on the top of the mountains:
I almost look like I know what I'm doing!
Near the end of that valley we continued to climb up to 6500’
as passed between a few mountain ranges and over the Murchison glacier, New
Zealand’s second longest glacier at 16 kilometres in length. Next was the head of the longest glacier, the
Tasman which is 29 kilometres. Crossing
what is known as the Southern Alps, we saw some of the Franz-Josef glacier, a popular
destination spot when travelling up the west coast of the island. Unfortunately, low cloud had rolled in and we
couldn’t see the coastline.
Then it was time for the big boys. First there was Mt. Tasman, known as a classic ice climb and standing tall at 11,475 feet and the second tallest mountain in New Zealand. Right next door was the reigning champion, Mount Cook standing tall at 12,316 feet. It was stunning. It is by all accounts a “good looking mountain”. It looked fantastic yesterday from the campsite and it looked even better close up. Lots of snow covered the top section and the bits of shear rockface where snow had no chance to cling onto, looked ice encrusted. I said to Justin “I can’t believe people climb that, especially the first ascent in 1894 with the equipment and clothing they would have had.” “I know, I think of that pretty much every day I’m up here.”
Stunning!
Earlier in the flight I had told Justin that I’m a paragliding and hang gliding instructor and pilot and he mentioned that he flew dragonflies, a small ultralight commonly used to tow hang gliders. As we left the big mountains and started to head back to the aerodrome, small disjointed cumulus clouds were forming and we started to get rocked around by the thermals that were generating them. He announced to the passengers that it would be a little bumpy for a few minutes but nothing to worry about and it wouldn’t last long. I was thinking in my head “This is the good stuff!”. Justin said he had a hang glider pilot in Queenstown that was going to try and make it to Lake Tekapo today…he’s got a chance!
Just like the takeoff, having the front seat for the landing
is awesome. The plane curved in and
lined up with the seemingly narrow runway from my perspective but Justin landed
it like a pro. He’s been flying since he
was 15, and it shows.
Lining up for final approach:
Nice landing!
I had mentioned to him during the flight that a tandem paragliding
passenger of mine a few years ago said after the flight “Life is about experiences,
and this is one of those experiences!”.
Well I felt the same today…this was one of those experiences!
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