Day 11 - Journey's End

Matt, Jo, Fred, me, Anna, Bruce, Doug and Carrie

Fred strapping in

North Island Bound

All good things must come to an end and so too is this flying adventure. There is no rush to get up on our final day as the flights are short, to Wanaka and then on to Queenstown, but not without a small diversion.  Our hosts had arranged for us to have a training flight in a Tiger Moth with Peter Hendriks at Classic Flights at Wanaka, the first in the pilot's seat.  Our past vintage flight in a Stampe was in the front seat, this time we were in the back so the hours were loggable. After breakfast we went up to the main house for coffee and cakes and a chance to say goodbye to some of the station staff who had come in for their morning break.

Awaiting the instructor

The plan was for Fred, Matt and me to fly over to Wanaka in TRS and Jo would come over later in WAX, which was due a service.  Bags loaded I took off from GHS and headed straight over the hills to drop down in to Wanaka and a longish taxi over to the hangers at the back of the aerodrome.  The Moth was already in the circuit when we arrived, so we were kitted up in suit and helmet while the plane returned.

Wanaka show with mountain backdrop

A short time later I was strapped in and opening up the throttle to get her airborne. With the inverted Gypsy engine it was left rudder for the roll and rudder for every turn, as it won't go round without it. She was a joy to fly.  Several turns and stalls later it was back to the airfield for a couple of circuits.  A few more hours and I think I could really get the hang of this!

Looking from the tower to the threshold of 23

With me back on the ground it was Fred's go and the grin on her face as she went off could have been seen for miles.  What seemed only a few minutes later we were back on the ground and heading off in to town for the annual Wanaka agricultural show.  It was, as you might expect, very similar to many UK county shows, only with the backdrop of the Southern Alps.  By now Jo had joined us and WAX was in the hangar with its engine being inspected, and we were soon ready to head off to Queenstown.  Forty five minutes later, having said our goodbyes, we were unloading our luggage on to an airport trolley and heading off to a week of ground based touring.  On our way in to Queenstown an Air New Zealand jet was ready to depart and we were rather amused to note it had to wait at the hold until we had landed and vacated the main runway.  That does not happen very often at our home airfields.

It had been an amazing 11 days.  The weather had allowed us to fulfil the itinerary as planned and we were able to couple seeing some absolutely stunning scenery with some challenging flying.  Having a local guide with us who knew the area

Inbound to 23 at Queenstown

and was familiar with mountain flying turned out to be a real bonus.  It enabled us to enjoy the flying without having the uncertainty and worry of unfamiliar flying and geography.

Jo & Matt McCaughan who run Flyinn, http://www.flyinn.co.nz/ and whose home they shared with us, are marvellous hosts.  The evenings around their dinner table will be fondly remembered sharing flying exploits with a bunch of other like minded aviators.  Jo's cooking made each meal a real pleasure (as did Matt's wine cellar).

Our guide pilots, who shared their knowledge, advice and experience and who were patient and calm as we got the hang of this mountain flying thing, were great company and I am sure we will keep in touch with them as well.

We had a few more days in the area before exploring some of North Island, by road.  I knew it would just not be the same.  Over the next few days, with clear blue skies every time a plane went over we were looking up.

PS.

The Monday after we finished our trip I had an opportunity to visit the tower at Queenstown where Megan, our guide for a large part of our trip, was able to show me around and see what goes on.  I recounted our final arrival at Queenstown and the Air New Zealand flight having to wait while we landed.  A few days later we were in the back of a Jetstar flight taking us up to Auckland and taxied as far as the hold and then had to wait for another aircraft to land.  Imagine our greater amusement at the irony of seeing TRS taxing across the apron to the GA area!

Day 8 - 10 - Marlborough

East Coast on route to Kaikoura

Kaikoura Peninsula

Mt Cook from Hokitika

Hokitika Beach Art

Living in Marlborough we could not come to New Zealand without visiting Marlborough.  It also happens to produce my favourite Sauvignon!  The plan was to fly up the east coast, across the top and down the west coast, with stops for fuel on route and two nights at Motueka. Our first stop was to be Kaikoura, just under three hours flying from GHS.  It was quite a breezy morning and we caught quite a lot of turbulence as we tracked out through the Lindis Pass to Omarama which bounced us around for about 30 minutes.  Sometimes this mountain flying can be quite hard work!  It was only once we were over the flatter coastal plain that we got in to cleaner air.  We tracked up the coast and got approval to fly over Christchurch, with the controller helpfully offering us a more direct route closer to the airport.  There was little obvious sign of the devastation that occurred from the earthquake that hit the area other than a number of large building plots to the east of the CBD.  The Cathedral, which we had heard a few days earlier was to be demolished, was tucked in amongst the trees and we could not see it.  A few miles on, in the suburbs we flew over a large residential development, that had been started some years earlier with property designs that were more resistant to earthquake damage; this is where those who lost homes will eventually re-settle.  We learnt that the slow take-up that had beleaguered this development had been reversed by people wanting to move out of the city centre to safer accommodation.

The town of Kaikoura is SE of the Seaward Kaikoura Range which peaks at 8500ft.  It is also at the end of a deep sea trench that has made the area famous for whale watching.

And more beach art

Mt Cook getting closer

There are strict rules operating in the area for whale watching. No more than three vessels (boats and planes) are allowed near whales at any one time and as the Kaikoura peninsula started to emerge it was clear there weren't any clusters of boats anywhere.  A few were heading back to port and others were turning large circles suggesting there was not much to see.  With power back we dropped down to about 1500ft and made some wide sweeping turns around the bay.  A few minutes in and we had our first success and spotted a whale with, we thought, a youngster alongside.  One of the aircraft from Kaikoura airfield that flies tourist trips over the bay picked up our position report and was soon heading out in our direction, as was a boat who assumed we had found something.  It was not easy to get clear pictures from the height we were at but it was rewarding to see whales.  After a short stop for coffee and fuel, Fred flew the next leg up to Omaka, an airfield just outside Blenheim in the Marlborough region, which houses the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. http://www.omaka.org.nz/  The collection is vividly displayed in themed settings and includes vintage aircraft and a vast array of memorabilia.  Much of it, one of the museum guides confided, being from the personal collection of Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings director), who bought his set design expertise to the displays.  Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Fox Glacier

From Omaka our plan had been to fly around the Marlborough Sound to take a look at the islands, but low cloud and strong winds meant we had to weave our way around Picton, Havelock and the Rai Valley in to Tasman Bay, just north of Nelson at about 1000 ft.  Because of the low cloud we planned to follow the cost around the bay to Motueka on the opposite side to Nelson.  As so often with New Zealand weather we arrived in Motueka to light winds and sunshine, only 50 miles from Blenheim!

The following day we drove back over to Marlborough through the Richmond Range and spent the day wine tasting our marvellous guide Megan, acting as driver for the day so as not to inhibit our tasting!  We managed to fit in 5 vineyards Alan Scott, St Clair, Hunters (where we stopped for lunch with two aviation friends of Megan's), Mud House and Wither Hills.  Sadly we did not get to The Ned which we buy in the UK as they did not appear to encourage visits.

'The Neck' between Lakes Wanaka & Hawea

Day 10 and we left Motueka at about 10 to fly down to Hokitika about 100nm north of Mt Cook.  The easterly wind blowing off the mountains resulted in us climbing to about 7,000ft to avoid getting caught up in the mountain turbulence.  The plus side were the views.  We had Mt Cook in the distance well before we got to Hokitika.  The fuel and lunch stop gave us a chance to walk around Hokitika which was gearing up to host the Wild Foods Festival. 

The town proclaims that is the last service centre for food, vehicles and outdoor gear for over 500kms and has the last major supermarket before Wanaka.  Certainly the road route to Wanaka is some 413 km and nearly 5 hours driving.

The strip at Mineret

The final leg took past the Fox Glacier and Mt Cook offering some stunning views.  The last time we passed  the western side of Mt Cook it felt like being pitched in to a tumble drier and the west coast was a sheet of cloud. Today although a little bit bumpy the visibility could not have been better.  We had the most stunning views of all the mountains and glaciers around Mt Cook, it was awe inspiring.  We turned inland at Haast and followed the river round to the Haast pass and then down the Makarora River to the top of lake Wanaka.  Passing some of the airfields we first flew into at the beginning of the trip.  Passing Wanaka airfield we crossed the hills west of GHS and landed at the station at the end of our last big trip.  The following day was our last with Flyinn.

Day 7 - Turbulence

Returning from fishing trip

It’s odd how people used to flying and being tossed around by turbulence and winds can be quite happy in a plane, but put them in a boat and the sea-sickness kicks in. Admittedly, we were drifting off-shore in a small fishing boat in a large swell which to the discomfort of some, was rolling and wallowing quite heavily. I was thoroughly enjoying it.

Old whalers station

The fishing platform at the back could only accommodate four people, so the six of us had to take it in turns to hold a rod with one hand the boat with another, and keep a close eye on the albatross that had seen the boat had flown in for their 'supper'. They are huge birds even with their wings folded and sitting on the sea, and have an beady eye watching us watching them. The trick was to hold the rods in the water and pull out the Blue Cod quickly before the birds can get them or indeed the bait when it goes in. One bird was too quick for one of our party and dived down attacking fish and line, in one go! The larger fish were kept, the smaller ones put back and with a haul of 15 fish to take back to GHS, we headed for Ulva Island.

Departing Stewart Island overhead Oban

Ulva is small privately owned protected island in the Paterson Inlet managed by the NZ Department of Conservation. Free of predators the Island is the home of Stewart Island’s former Post Office, located centrally at a time when there were no roads and the small population and visiting boats were widely distributed around the isles. Nowadays the small population lives close to the hamlet of Oban and the old post office has long since closed. Once on Ulva Island we were able to enjoy a walk around some of the footpaths, there are no roads, and you soon appreciate the protected natural habitat and dense forest. Back on the boat we headed further up the Paterson Inlet to look at an old whaling repair station on what was simply a quiet sandy cove. Whilst Stewart Island's population of boat builders was originally spread around harvesting and milling wood, these gave way to whaling in the early 1920's with the establishment of a repair yard for the Norwegian whaling fleet’s service ships. Now all that is left is the old slipway rails, an old steam boiler from a failed salvage attempt in the sea, and anchors of the long abandoned operation.

Blow Hole on coast at Tatuku Peninsular

With our Blue Cod safely stored it was back to our aircraft for the flight back to GHS. We decided to go back a different way and few up the east coast past the Tautuku Peninsular with its caves and blowholes to Nugget Point before turning inland to fly the Clutha River all the way up to Alexandra.

The coastal lowlands soon gave way to the increasingly high mountains after we passed Beaumont with the Old Man Range on our left rising to just under 6,000ft.

The Herc following us in

Although we would continue to fly with a local guide, we were required to complete a bi-annual flight review as part of our NZ licence validation. So today we were flying with Nick Taylor who was to do the reviews. Mine was to be on the way back and started with an EFATO (engine failure after take-off) straight after take-off from Ryan’s Creek. Options were limited but for a small beach in Oban as the aiming point, I would probably have made it! My PFL was also over the coast and gave me an opportunity to fly at a little over 150ft along the coast after completing the manoeuvre. Steep turns and stalls complete we landed at Alexandra just ahead of one of the RNZAF Hercules based there during their training exercise.

The training fleet of Kingairs

With my BFR complete it was now Fred’s turn. Now whilst being quite comfortable switching between boats and planes I am less comfortable being in the back while other people are carrying out steep turns and unusual manoeuvres. I like to be able to see the horizon and be close to the controls. So I opted out of the exercise and spent an hour by the side of the runway chatting to the RNZAF crews and watching the aircraft, something that would not be easy in the UK. It was all very relaxed. 

Fred completing her PFL

By coincidence as we first taxied in there was Union Jack emblazoned on one of the flight crew. It turned out he was on secondment to the RNZAF from of one the RAF’s former Nimrod Squadrons, 120, based at Kinloss in Scotland. Initially there to work with the maritime reconnaissance squadron, and as a QFI, he is now training RNZAF pilots on Beech Kingairs. This was the first of two coincidences at Alexandra.

The second coincidence was the ATC controller who we had spoken to a few days prior happened to be on duty and was also an old friend of our of our guide pilots. Appreciating we had been aware of their exercise prior to transiting past them he apologised for his reminder. After pulling his leg about him wanting to have someone to talk to we had a long chat about what they were up to. 

With tests complete, aircraft refuelled it was quick hop up to GHS via Cromwell and Thomson’s Gorge for our blue cod supper. The last surprise of the day came as we came to cross the ridge to drop into Tarras. The winds had picked up and we started to suffer bad turbulence, so much so that our guide took the controls from Fred. At that point we picked up an updraft that took us from about 3,500ft to 7,200ft in about 15 – 20 seconds. It was as smooth as a lift even though the VSI (vertical speed indicator) hit the stops. Even our guide had to admit he had never seen anything like it!!....nor had we. 

The Blue Cod were excellent!

Day 6 – Stewart Island

Lake Wanaka

Overhead Queenstown

Kingston Flyer

Day 6 saw us heading down to the very south to Stewart Island.  The route was to take us via Mandeville for a lunch stop and then on to Gore for fuel and finally Ryan’s Creek,  just above Oban on Stewart Island. 

Fred flew the first leg to Mandeville.  The route south took us out to Wanaka and then down the Cardrona River and over the Crown Saddle to the Kawarau River.  Turning west we entered Lake Wakatipu via the Frankton (Queenstown) airport overhead, then turned south to fly the lower half of Wakatipu to Kingston.  Much of this section was at relatively low level because of the cloud base and was at times bit bumpy.  At Kingston we climbed and as we did so the Kingston Flyer, an old steam engine that runs between Kingston and Fairlight Station, a distance of about 15km came towards us.   We dropped back down to get some shots of the train.  From Fairlight the mountains begin to reduce in height and the valley opens up to the lowland areas of southern South Island.  The jagged peaks of the west and central areas, where the land is rich pasture for sheep grazing, give way to the rolling countryside and flat-lands of the south of the island.    

Props in manufacture

Climbing back up we followed the main road that runs down to Invercargill as far as Lumsden before turning south west and flying over Balfour and Riversdale then dropping into Mandeville.

Comet being restored (not the UK version!)

Wing Section

Engine Shop

Apart from having an exceptionally good restaurant and café, Mandeville also boasts an aviation museum and a commercially run restoration workshop for old aircraft. Croydon Aircraft Company was established in 1986 by Colin and Maeva Smith, as a restoration facility for wood and fabric type 1920-30's aeroplanes.  http://www.croydonaircraft.com/ Although we arrived on a Sunday, Flyinn had arranged for it to be opened and allowed us to look around unattended.  It was an Aladdin’s cave of partly restored aircraft, engine shops, spares and formers for various aircraft cladding.  The formers themselves were meticulously put together.    They also made their own propellers; we were able to see the various laminations before being bonded together, a bonded but unshaped prop and one partly finished.  We could have spent hours there, but needed to press on for fuel.  It is somewhere we would like to go back to.

Gore is not the normal sort of airfield.  Apart from a couple of aero clubs it has an agricultural business and what looks like oversized Pawnee, but is in fact an Air Tractor, 502B.  It was certainly of agricultural proportions.  This one appeared to have been adapted for dusting.

Air Tractor at Gore

Short Final Ryan's Creek

With tanks now full of fuel it was lifejackets on for the hop over to Stewart Island and Ryan’s Creek aerodrome, some 30km from Stirling point.  At mid-point over the water we heard that an Islander was on its way over to drop off passengers at Ryan’s Creek.  We were concerned we would end up circuiting to allow the commercial service in but managed to sneak in ahead of it and clear the runway.  It was to be back half an our later after pcikign up passenges on the beach at Mason Bay, before heading back to Invercargill.  

Parking is limited at Ryan’s Creek and with six or so planes on the ground the place is full.  We managed to find a tie down spot on the small apron, though one of our aircraft had to park off one end of the runway.    With covers on and all tied down we checked into the South Sea Hotel (red roofed building in photo) and had a chance to explore the foreshore, the small harbour of Oban and some of the surrounding area.  We had an early dinner as the next morning we were off fishing for blue cod and exploring by boat.  http://www.stewartisland.co.nz/

Oban Habour

Day 5 - Dunedin (Taieri)

Fraser Dam

This was the second day of a cold southerly that had settled in for a few days and until then it was easy to forget that the next stop south was Antarctica. The taller ranges were now dusted in snow, which made the landscape look quite wintry, even though this was still summer. The cold wind coupled with weather systems coming in from the West had bought low cloud and occasional showers for the flight to Taireri just south of Dunedin, over on the East Coast.

Dunedin Airport

Fred flew the leg out and we had to keep below the low cloud and avoid some of the larger rain showers. The route took us out south westerly through Cromwell and then Alexandra, where a large military training exercise was taking place with the NZ Air Force. We kept well clear though it did not stop the temporary military tower reminding us that they were there, assuming perhaps we had not read the local NOTAMs. We told them it was why we were giving them a wide berth! We were to meet the controller a few days later.

Stand up straight Nick

Although not gusty, the showers followed us most of the way down the Clutha River to Beaumont, then SE to Lawrence where Dunedin asked us to track the south eastern side of the valley up to our destination airfield of Taieri. One of our fellow aircraft had been cleared to track the shorter NW side, resulting in us arriving only a few minutes ahead of them. By now the wind had got up and we covered and tied the aircraft down before heading in to Dunedin for lunch.

Tough at the top

We spent some time exploring the town, looking at the architecture and checking out the art gallery in the town centre’s Octagon. We were also driven up Baldwin Street, the steepest residential road in the world (we were told) which rises from 30m to 100m in just 350m. It has a gradient of 1:2.86 towards the top section, 1 metre up for every 2.86 walked, or rather climbed.



The port, railway and a semi-industrial area separate the main part of town from the waterfront so quayside walks or restaurant to explore. Parts of the town are quite interesting and there are some good restaurants tucked away. Soon back at the aircraft we decided to fly back via a northern route as it was felt the weather would be better, which proved to be the case.

St Bathans Range

Geordie Hill Sunshine

I took off and departed overhead and out over the town towards Palmerston where we picked up the Shag River towards Naseby. By this time the cloud had lifted and the sun was beginning to break through. We dropped back in to GHS from the East via Dunstan Creek with the Bathans Range, capped in snow, to our right. As ever GHS was in sunshine with little wind. It became something of a trend over the trip that whatever the weather out to the west or east, the Lindis valley and Geordie Hill Station seemed to be bathed in a sunny calm whatever was going on a few miles in either direction. 

Day 4 - Big Bay and Milford Sound

The first three days of flying in South Island had been a gentle introduction to mountain flying with blue skies and light winds (with perhaps the exception of flying around the back of Mt Cook).  The principle is to fly along the right hand side of a valley unless wind turbulence requires a different approach.  In low cloud conditions when approaching saddles, low lying ridges used to cross from one valley to another, the trick is to approach at an angle to allow the option to turn back if the other side is not clear and always have an escape plan.  As a result drawing a line on a map to determine and plan your route simply does not feature in mountain flying, as you weave you way around and through the mountains.

Overhead join for the beach!

Day 4 was going to be some of the more challenging flying getting across to the west coast for a beach landing on Big Bay, followed by a flight round and into Milford Sound, a deep and steep sided fjord that has an airstrip at one end, and then on to Fjordland in the South West corner of the island, otherwise known as Peter Jackson’s film set for his Lord of the Rings films.

Turning base - mountains to right.

Parked to one side of runway

Milford Sound has a specific set of procedures for arrival and departure because of the narrow fjord and valleys leading in to the airfield.  More details can be found here: http://www.transport.govt.nz/about/Documents/NZMF.pdf  and www.caa.govt.nz/safety_info/GAPs/Milford_GAP.pdf

New Zealand pilots are well used to the discipline of self-reporting and Milton Sound additionally has an information (radio) service but not full ATC, so approaching pilots have to keep an eye on other traffic, a good listening watch as well as flying the plane.

You quickly get used to the idea that on many strips a long finals approach, sometimes even a short approach is not always possible.  So getting the plane set up early is vital to a successful landing. Windsocks are not always visible or available so overflying the strip is a must.  On day 3 our challenge was to land on the beach at Big Bay which is around 8km across and 8km wide and touch down on sandy beach across the back of the bay – so as runways go – pretty long.  Landing aircraft usually land and park at the north end, so with the prevailing southerly wind, we still ended up hugging the mountain at the north, to touch down just over a small creek.

 

Entry to Milford Sound

A short landing roll with yoke well back to stop the nose wheel digging in, we slowly taxied back to avoid picking up stones from the prop and parked facing out to sea.  As we went for a walk around the dunes to take a look at the whitebait fisherman’s huts I mused over the number of beaches we could land on in the UK – with such freedom. The “white-baiters” are only there for a few months a year and there rest of the year the bay is only visited by trampers (hikers) and the odd aircraft.

Runway in distance

Short finals for 11

Next stop was Milford Sound and short track down the coast to join from the seaward side.  Strict adherence to flying on the right and hugging the hill was reinforced when the narrowness of the gorge became apparent.  Saint Anne Point was our first reporting point with a decision yet to be made on whether to land on 11 or 29.  Whilst there is flexibility on landing there is little on departure because of the steep mountains close to the end of the runway.  Equally go-arounds on 11 are not encouraged for the same reason.  There was quite a lot of traffic in the sound with a number of planes departing and the three Cessna 172s in our fleet, about 5 minutes apart.  This was going to be the least straight approach I have ever flown with a short final for 11 to the left after rounding the last cliff on the right.

One of fleet flying in behind us

  The wind at the top of the sound was negligible and rather than fly a tight circuit round the back for 29 we were told that 11 was available should we want it.  Trying not to think about the prospects of not getting in cleanly, it was down soon after the numbers.   Rather satisfying!  After lunch and a short exploration of Milford we were off to Fjordland.

Apron looking towards threshold of 29

 Assuming we would track back out the same way we were surprised to find we would be leaving through the overhead to track up the Arthur River to carry out a circuit of Lake Quill.  Most circuits are going around something in the middle – like a runway. This circuit was going to be going around something on the outside as Lake Quill is a high level mountain lake with an amazing waterfall down to the Arthur River.   The aim was to cross in to the lake over the waterfall and then lose airspeed to 70kts and put out one stage of flap.  Hug the hill was again the message as we flew round to the right for an anti-clockwise circuit.  It was a weird feeling flying around the inside of a circular mountain tarn with one entrance and exit, short of a very slow, high climb out over the top.  The views were simply amazing and it was slightly off to fly out over a huge, huge drop.

Flying out through the Arthur River we traversed a number of saddles and across an number of the inlets in Fjordland until it was time to head to Manapouri, an underused airport, with PAPIS, departure lounge, hard runway and no planes or passengers.  It had been developed by the local authority to encourage traffic and tourism to the area, though the ANZ flights had finished.  We had a break in the airport café, from the hot drinks and cakes we brought ourselves.  After refuelling ourselves and our aircraft it was time to head back to GHS for dinner.

The underutilised Manapouri

Day 3 - Dart River Jetboat

Turning Finals for Glenorchy

Day 3 was a fun day with the sole purpose of flying to the top of Lake Wakatipu to an airfield called Glenorchy which services the Dart River, to spend the afternoon on a jet boat.  Our guide for the next few days was Megan George, an air traffic controller at Queenstown, an instructor and commercial pilot who had flown regularly into Milford Sound.  We learnt quickly that she was an expert mountain flyer and knew the geography better than most of us in the UK know our local area. 

Sharp Left

A mid-morning start, our flight took us out over Roses Saddle, Lake Luna and out into Lake Wakatipu passing through the edge of Queenstown’s airspace.  Tracking around the lake we flew up to the northern tip of Wakatipu to Glenorchy, again an airfield on the right hand side of the lake with a small cliff to the southerly runway, chosen because of the prevailing winds that had bought the warmth of the last few days down several degrees.  It was a chilly, blowy day.  

And right - minding the rocks

A minibus picked us up at the airfield and we had a brief lunch before we were driven some 40 minutes up the Dart River.  The first part of the trip was a 20 minute walk through the forest, to the shore of the river where we were to pick up the boats.  The walk paused frequently for our river Dart Jetboat guide to talk us through the ecological and environmental impact of man’s intervention with the area of NZ’s history, from the problems arising from the introduction of non-native mammals (rabbit, deer, tar goat), and also trees such as the Douglas Fir which have pushed out native species such as the incorrectly named beech varieties, which bear no resemblance to their namesakes north of the equator.  This kind of environmental message had been part of other activities which we had taken part in such as the Ziptrek visit in Queenstown.  The lasting impression was that New Zealanders care deeply about the country in which they live.

We joined the jetboats at Chinaman’s Bluff, some 40km north of Glenorchy and were kitted up with waterproofs and life jackets.  It was a cold day so the heated handrails on the boats were welcome.  The river was shallow and we were all unsure how we would make progress until we learnt that the boats could travel at up to 35-40kts and had a draft of only 4 inches, so were able to traverse much of the end of summer levels of the river.  It was an exhilarating 80 minutes, travelling first up-river to some of the higher reaches of the Dart then back down to top of Lake Wakatipu.   Several stops provided further insight into the river and the environment making a memorable afternoon.

The trip back to GHS included a fuel stop over at Wanaka and flight back through the Queenstown airspace for one of Jo’s memorable dinners.