Ski Plane and Helicopter Glacier Landing Combo Flight Mount Cook

Mount Cook Airport and the Tasman Valley

The flight begins at Mount Cook Airport, the small aerodrome on the floor of the Tasman Valley about five kilometres from Mount Cook Village inside Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park. Check-in closes 45 minutes before departure, when passengers are weighed and briefed and seats are allocated to balance the aircraft. The ski plane taxis on wheels and lowers its skis only for the snow; the helicopter lifts straight off the apron.

Within a minute of take-off you are over the wide grey braids of the Tasman River and the moraine walls that mark where the glacier once reached. The valley is the main approach to the mountains, and the Mount Cook scenic flight follows it north with the Ben Ohau Range on one side and the Liebig Range on the other, climbing steadily towards the ice. Tasman Valley flights are the classic way to see the park when there is no time for long hikes.

The Tasman Glacier and its terminal lake

The Tasman Glacier is the longest in New Zealand, about 23 kilometres from its névé high in the Southern Alps to the terminal lake, and up to several hundred metres thick. From the air you see its whole length: the grey, rock-covered lower reaches, the crevassed middle section and the white snowfields at the top where you will land. At the foot of the ice lies the Tasman Terminal Lake, a milky turquoise lake that has formed since the 1970s as the glacier retreats, with icebergs calving from the terminal face.

A Tasman Glacier landing flight is the only way to stand on the upper glacier without mountaineering skills, and the pilots explain how the ice moves and why the lake is growing. Landing on the glacier takes place on the upper snowfields, where the surface is smooth and the aircraft can shut down safely.

The Hochstetter Icefall and the Grand Plateau

Above the main glacier the Hochstetter Icefall tumbles from the Grand Plateau in a chaotic staircase of blue seracs and crevasses, one of the most dramatic sights in the national park and impossible to reach on foot. The flight passes close to it, then rises over the Grand Plateau itself, the high snow basin beneath the east face of Aoraki where mountaineers camp at Plateau Hut before climbing the summit.

Seeing the Hochstetter Icefall from a helicopter or ski plane gives a sense of scale that photographs rarely capture: the blocks of ice are the size of houses and the drop below them is hundreds of metres. The pilot commentary names the peaks around the plateau, including Mount Tasman, the country's second-highest mountain, whose ice-covered summit stands beside Aoraki.

The snow landing

The landing is the heart of the trip. The aircraft sets down on the upper snowfield of the Tasman Glacier at around 2,000 metres, shuts down completely and you step out onto the snow. The mountains here are covered in snow and ice all year, so even in midsummer you stand in a white amphitheatre of peaks with Aoraki / Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, directly above. You have several minutes to walk around near the aircraft, take photographs and listen to the silence.

Wear closed-toe shoes and sunglasses, as the glare off the snow is strong, and dress in layers; the air is cold even on sunny days. Then you board the second aircraft, so that passengers who flew out by ski plane return by helicopter and vice versa, and see the glacier again from a different height and angle on the way down.

Aoraki / Mount Cook from the air

Aoraki / Mount Cook rises to 3,724 metres and is sacred to the Ngāi Tahu people, who tell of the mountain as an ancestor turned to stone. From the ground the summit is often hidden by cloud; from the air at close range you see its three peaks, the great east face above the Grand Plateau and the ridges that mountaineers have followed for more than a century. The best time for a Mount Cook helicopter flight is the morning, when the air is calmest and the light is clearest on the ice.

Flights run through the day in good weather and are refundable if the weather closes in, with the local team helping to reschedule around your travel plans. Because the aircraft are small, passenger weights are required at booking and flight times can shift if combined weights reach the safety limit; bring only a phone or camera on board, as bags are not allowed.