• A jacket
• Sunglasses
• Soled shoes
• Your camera or phone for photos.

The helicopter is a comfortable temperature, and the snow landing sites varies. In the winter the temperature is generally about 5° colder than town and in the peak of summer it is often warmer than Franz Josef township. We will be able to offer advice at check on the day's current conditions.

Summer is the peak time of the year for tourism with the most sunshine hours, but fresh snow on the mountains the rest of the year makes for fantastic landing spots and great photos.

Suprisingly Winter is one of the best times to fly here with a lot of cold, clear days. However the wild West Coast weather changes quickly and we can have four seasons in a day at any time of the year.

We aim to fly every day of the year if the weather allows us too.

There is street parking in front of the office, additionally there is a car park just across the road which is also suitable for camper vans.

It is technically possible to apply for a permit to use a drone but it is not common for these permits to be approved due to the number of helicopters in the region and the National Park regulations. Flying a drone without a permit can result in large fines and charges from the Civil Aviation Association and New Zealand Police. More information can be found on the below links.

https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/apply-for-permits/drone-use-on-conservation-land/using-drones-in-national-parks

https://www.airshare.co.nz/tourist-questions-answered

No, we cannot guarantee these as we need to allocate seats at check in after weighing each passenger and seat them according to each helicopter's specific weight and balance regulations - this is for safety reasons. The front seats have the most restrictive conditions. Private charters do have more flexibility and we are happy to discuss seating with your charter booking but there are still specific weight and balance regulations for each helicopter we need to meet.

Our fleet includes two Airbus Helicopter H125 machines (aka AS350 B2 Squirrel) seating up to 6 passengers and a MD 520N (Notar) seating up to 4 passengers (plus an infant) which also provides up to a 50% reduction in noise over other helicopters.