Nntexas

All,
Looking for advice on the Heli Hike or Heli-Flight in Franz Josef. We do like to hike, and the description of the sights available with the heli-hike is compelling. Alternately we can pre-book the heli-flight--much shorter without time on the ice or in the caves.
We are torn about this...not sure we want to be over-programmed, and we do have other adventures already planned in our itinerary while in "glacier country". Is it really impossible to book at the last minute? We'll be there in mid-March.

Honestly I've been on several glaciers and don't always find them that amazing. But maybe I'm wrong?

Will post later to get more advice on restaurants
Thanks

Melnq8

We took the heli-hike many years ago on our third or fourth visit to the SI. We'd been unable to take it on earlier trips due to poor weather - flights are often cancelled if the weather isn't ideal. We finally had a decent weather day predicted, so the day before, we booked both the morning and afternoon heli-hike to cover our bases and then cancelled the one we didn't take. The tour operator suggested we do this and it worked a treat.

I'm not sure if they still encourage double bookings, but it worked well for us. Granted, we were there off-season, so the demand was probably not as great as during the high season.

We really enjoyed the heli-hike, but thought it was pretty tame - you only move as fast as the slowest participant, so it was more of a slow ramble than a hike. The views were tremedous though - mostly because we were so lucky with the weather.

Nntexas

Thanks Melinq8 for your input, which is very helpful. I am inclined to play it by ear so we can gauge the weather and our mood at the time. The tour folks tell us that it might be sold out since we will be in Franz Josef mid-March. I suspect that there are many other grand hikes and activities there.

Really looking forward to our trip, and your posts were helpful as we were figuring out the itinerary--3 weeks total North and South Island, 1 week North and 2 weeks South.

ms_go

Not sure about the heli-hike, but we were driving through the Fox/Franz Josef area in mid March last year (around the 9th or 10th) and were able to get on a heli-flight with snow landing with no reservation. We made it a spur-of-the-monent decision based on the weather. We walked into the office and were in the air less than 45 minutes later. All the others on our flight were also walk-ins who came in after us. It was spectacular!

Zenfolio onelittleworld Haast to Hokitika via the glaciers