The video does not specify the exact total flight duration. The experience includes multiple stops for landing and walking around remote sites, so expect a half-day commitment from arrival at Heliworks to return.
At a glance
Length
25 min
Channel
Pilot Yellow
Video from
Feb 2025
Rating
⭐⭐ Great video · 2/2
Best for
Adventure travelers and photographers seeking remote alpine scenery in New Zealand
What this video answers
How long is the entire flight?
Can you actually land and get out of the helicopter?
What is the cost of this helicopter tour?
Is this tour suitable for children?
What should I wear for a helicopter flight in New Zealand?
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Scenic Helicopter Flight Over New Zealand's Fjordland
This helicopter experience takes you from Queenstown on an aerial tour of some of New Zealand's most dramatic landscapes. The flight covers the mountains and valleys surrounding Queenstown, pushes out toward Fjordland, visits Milford Sound, and includes multiple landing stops in remote backcountry spots. You'll see glacier-fed lakes, waterfalls cascading thousands of feet, and terrain that rises directly from the ocean—all from an Airbus EC130 T2 helicopter with excellent visibility and smooth handling.
The experience suits anyone seeking a premium scenic adventure with authentic interaction with the landscape, not just aerial views. If you've dreamed of landing on remote mountainsides, standing beside alpine lakes, and seeing the scenery that defines New Zealand's wilderness, this tour delivers exactly that. It's ideal for photographers, nature lovers, and travelers who want to experience the country's most inaccessible terrain in a single flight.
Key Moments
Highlights of This Heliworks Queenstown Tour
Multiple remote glacier-fed lake landings where you can step out and stand in pristine wilderness, including one lake described as 67 kilometers long
Flyover of Milford Sound with vertical cliff walls rising directly from deep ocean waters (over 1,200 meters deep) and cascading waterfalls
Passes through narrow mountain saddles and ridges, accessing terrain unreachable by road or hiking
Scenic route through Fjordland's valleys, including views of the Milford Road approach from above
Pilot-in-command experience where you can assist with flying controls and navigation decisions during the flight
West Coast ocean views and high-altitude perspectives of remote farmland and private valleys
What to Know Before Booking Your Queenstown Helicopter Tour
Aircraft: Airbus EC130 T2 helicopter, which offers more power, speed, and smoother flight than earlier models
Weather-dependent: The tour requires clear VFR (visual flight rules) conditions; flights operate in fair weather windows
Multiple landing sites: The pilot chooses specific landing spots based on conditions and foot traffic to ensure privacy and safety
Timing: The video shows a morning departure in fresh but pleasant temperature conditions
Group composition: Family-friendly, with young passengers accommodated (safety briefing and harness checks included)
Pilot expertise: Heliworks pilots are high-time professionals (8,000+ flight hours) experienced in low-level mountain flying
Book in advance: Popular tours fill up quickly, especially during peak season
Frequently Asked Questions About This New Zealand Helicopter Experience
How long is the entire flight?
The video does not specify the exact total flight duration. The experience includes multiple stops for landing and walking around remote sites, so expect a half-day commitment from arrival at Heliworks to return.
Can you actually land and get out of the helicopter?
Yes. The tour includes several landing stops where passengers exit the helicopter, stand on alpine terrain, and experience the landscape up close. The pilot identifies suitable grass or rocky landing areas near lakes and glacier viewpoints.
What is the cost of this helicopter tour?
The video does not mention pricing. Contact Heliworks Queenstown directly for current rates, as costs vary by season and group size.
Is this tour suitable for children?
The video shows a family with young children on the flight, completing the full tour with multiple landings. Children must be properly harnessed and briefed on safety procedures, but the experience is family-accessible.
What should I wear for a helicopter flight in New Zealand?
The video mentions fresh morning temperatures in Queenstown. Wear layers, as you'll experience varied altitudes and conditions. Closed-toe hiking boots or sturdy shoes are advised for walking on remote landing sites. Bring a camera with a good zoom for capturing distant scenery.
Flying conditions where the pilot navigates by sight rather than instruments, requiring clear visibility and fair weather.
Fjordland
A region of New Zealand characterized by deep valleys, steep cliffs, and dramatic coastal scenery, accessed on this tour via air routes.
Milford Sound
A famous fiord on New Zealand's South Island with towering cliff walls and waterfalls that plunge directly into deep ocean water.
EC130 T2 helicopter
A modern Airbus model designed for passenger transport and scenic flights, known for smooth handling and good power performance in mountain environments.
Dual controls
A setup that allows a passenger to assist with or take control of the aircraft's flight under pilot supervision during the flight.
This video is invaluable if you're considering a scenic helicopter tour review and want to see exactly what a premium Queenstown experience looks like. The pilot's expertise shines through, and you get a genuine sense of the remote terrain, the landing experience, and how the flight is actually conducted—not a polished sales pitch, but real footage of the adventure.
What impressed me most was the authenticity of the landing sites and the pilot's willingness to show decision-making in real time—choosing between locations, respecting other visitors' privacy, and adapting to conditions. If dramatic scenery, actual ground contact at remote spots, and professional mountain flying are your priorities, this best helicopter tour option is genuinely worth booking sooner rather than later.
Years on the front lines of helicopter tour coordination — not as a travel blogger, but as the person responsible for making every guest experience go right. Managed 2,000+ cruise guests weekly as Shore Excursions staff aboard the Pride of America in Hawaii
Personally coordinated with helicopter tour operators to confirm age, weight, and safety requirements.
I was able to take up an Airbus H130 Helicopter from Heliworks in Queenstown New Zealand to see some of the worlds best scenery. This was bar none one of my top best flights I've done. So many incredible things to see. If you want some aerial views of the glaciers, lakes, mountains, Milford Sounds, and much more then make sure you check this video out.
Video transcript for “Most AMAZING flight of my LIFE over New Zealand!” Accessibility
A full written transcript of this video, provided for accessibility. Select any timestamp to jump the video to that moment.
good morning you guys welcome back to another day of Adventure we're in Queenstown New Zealand today and we're going flying it is a beautiful day actually look at that there's a bunch of skydivers up there but it's a gorgeous morning and um the temperature is a little bit fresh but it's feeling
awesome the mountains around here are incredible reminds me of back home in BC and we're going to take out an ec130 and go for a beautiful flight why don't you guys come with us let's go all right so we just arrived here at heli Works Queenstown and um man you don't get these days all the time but uh this is a
perfect one to go flying got the whole family here with me everybody want to say hi hi hi my parents boys you ready you excited quenny you excited [Music] honey it's important that all those use down side exit and theic okay so we are
right here in Queenstown and then we're going to be flying kind of out over the mountains here out towards fjordland doing some Landings out in this area and the Milford Sound back through the glaciers and back so light let's head up to the hanger all right nice beautiful thank you nice and this is Nick this is our
pilot for today and owner of heli works right very good yeah absolutely very nice all right so this is the ec130 t2 last time you guys saw me flying in Auckland I was flying the B4 so the t2 has a little bit more power uh flies a little bit faster and is smoother actually so I'm looking forward
to giving this one a shot and seeing what that's like [Music] [Music]
and you can actually push it in sorry I can't actually see that just close that oh yeah which one do you want oh just go back s back yeah you go got it now see [Music] [Applause]
we're C the right there good around and then as we get past the SC you can turn to the right this way perfect I don't need to be on the controls at all nice and we just going to head out to that little Gap there okay [Music]
just little bit we're going to to that big u shaped sadle you can see in the distance y was that 1,500 ft away 1,500 F away just okay um nice the winter time easy
half yeah Caravan in front of us there as well going keeping out we're going brch in a minute once we Blue Line Z okay so when can hear us it's all VFR traffic they un controlled so um yeah just keep we'll just keep climbing up straight at the moment that keeping
[Music] beautiful out [Music] here this is a narrow road especially for a bus towards the left side of that there it's nice though it's uh way more
stable a lot faster keep the power yeah beautiful [Music] [Applause] uh which direction you want me going that
next one in the distance y sounds good so the Lake's about 80 km long so this is the Northern end y couple Islands here ping a pig [Music] island quite a long time now over 10
years proba okay we're pretty lucky they're all very high time experience guys about 8,000 so whe the weather's bad we go to these lower settles quite low level get through these places yeah uh but this like a convergence like four valleys y uh the Milford Road which if you drove
to Milford from que that's there yeah but you got to go way [Applause] down this is where you want to land we can land down here okay sounds good or we can go to the next one land you down here you just the belly there on
down there okay sounds [Music] good that's L down that's big lake yeah that's big l 67k oh yeah H nice kind to see quite a flat I
think I spotted a spot let's see if we see the same spot or I see the spot you're thinking of almost right in the middle there nice [Music] waterfall and yeah it's a little bit un once you get in close but you will find some they got really good skids they kind of PIV it a little bit the back so
it's almost a flat Rocky it's kind of a rocky flat top [Music]
yeah now this reminds me of BC yeah [Music] beautiful tail right there you want me to land here or up here that's fine if you keep coming forward a little bit yeah over there keep sing forward just so that
no wrong side pops what I said you're filming up the wrong side oh sorry don't worry I got it I was getting you ah nice is that all right Mom
[Music] [Music]
it's pretty good out to 120 and then you get a little bit Yeah Yeah can pass one there's a we Lodge down here SE in the shade but there's a lodge down a whe grass strip oh yeah over okay and you guys hel out of here or no no this is the national par we can't do this oh yeah yeah it's not much snow
over here either cuz it's quite across the ocean so yeah stays B warmer on this side [Music] yeah you can s around if you like and then then will go to the back of the lake and do a landing okay cool okay about yeah yeah the r of flowers that red comes out
okay you going to cut through to the lake and then we land at the back there cool CL see again here he shot went there but yeah little there yeah there a there
[Music] the here so up at the top of the KN
there just just short of the top the right spot keep [Music] down it's yeah it's almost on the very TI okay I think I see your spot maybe Brown s of money bit yeah exactly that's it you're on to it nice so we pop the SKS
old in the W you can see y got it gotes on so set up yeah perfect put one SK in this side one SK over [Music] here this is breathtaking the
temperature is incredible there's no bugs up here and the flying is [Music] amazing y That's the trail there yeah
Trail the [Music] on the left okay 5000 ft high Y Rises directly from the ocean yeah F very deep 1200 uh over 1200 me deep 1200 me [Music]
wow I got a picture of that top awesome I'll give it okay [Music] yeah up top here there's the West Coast pops wow what we do to this next Ridge you
can do a big okay sounds good and we'll start climbing we're going to climb up over the top here in a minute aw [Music] [Applause]
on the other side there come ACR oh I got him he's tur left [Music] you got oh yeah I got the other one too [Music] y he's coming our way but we'll be underneath
them nice all right let's just climb up yeah uh [Music]
exactly yeah they are a good thing see the are exactly yeah [Music]
[Music] uh oh there's a hel couple hel up there is that you guys uh you look right yeah uh I think that is actually don't think it's our ones so what we might do come out and then we'll come back here and we'll look for a spot that's not cassed up over the tough
[Music] yeah looks like uh probably just a group of friends but could be a wedding or [Music] something wall there vertical wall yeah that's wild [Music]
so there's two places we can go we can go to that far away we can just go back in here let's give them some privacy maybe and over there okay y so what we do to land on this spot we're going to land through a little Notch yeah [Music] uh a look at all that run off yeah nice
[Music] [Music] come here got fence right off there y [Applause] [Music]
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] want you can take SP round 180 if you
want so that they can look down the glass when they out nice sweet all right you guys want to
jump what a sweet spot that's amazing just about the mil for down down down there west coast of the ocean right here this is incredible and there's no more right that' be a rude awakening coming around the corner yeah
yeah oh yeah yeah so if you cut through here next come out over this other little Glasser Lake okay get there and then we're going to head across to M as well [Music]
okay there's a true Glacier Lake [Music] yeah but the Little Mountain anti down here num is that what you
have that STS yeah oh there will be sh [Music] [Music] now yeah that's a nice
[Music] one yeah so you see that waterfall coming on the left yeah on the left yeah we just land to the right of that on the grass y got it [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Music]
this is [Music] Paradise keep going up yeah walking trail in here there a walking trail it's private land but the farmer Farmer people there's somebody up there are we okay to go there not be
any got me in the grass over there the yeah got it I got a nice spot there yeah [Music] yeah it's amazing to have amazing pretty crazy generation Farm it's pretty
[Music] bral yeah exactly [Music] yeah I can imagine a lot of [Music] avalanches wow this tops anything that
I've ever seen I think flying I've been some pretty amazing places but guys this is unbelievable I can't even describe it in words what it's like with all the waterfalls the glacier up there the water it's like oh man honey what do you think this is it's like the land that's at the end of
the rainbow yeah exactly this is what you dream of when you go over the mountains and you dream of like the paradise on the other side of the rainbow right look at OPA woo nice [Music]
[Music] okay here we go everybody's good strapped in Quinny one of your straps is missing so tuck it underneath your headset [Music]
[Music] nice [Music]
[Music] [Music] second yeah yeah that's
[Music] [Music] great guys that was incredible Adventure thanks for coming along I hope you enjoyed it it was literally one of the best flights I've ever done when you Bine everything together I've done some incredible stuff around different parts of the world but when you combine it all
together into one flight like that and to fly an amazing helicopter that was a really good experience I really want to thank Nick and his whole team there at heli Works uh they were incredible to get me up uh get the dual controls in there so I could do the flight and uh just be able to see this incredible
scenery so thanks to hel works and Nick and uh the whole team and thanks to you guys for watching if you like the video subscribe and uh click that like button a [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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