Drop Offs

We operate from Franz Josef, on the West Coast and fly all over New Zealand’s South Island. Please note during our peak tourism season from December through March we have extremely limited availability for back country flights. 

The South Island of New Zealand has the perfect combination of remote landscapes – from the forest, to the mountainous terrain and the alpine flats. The more remote the better it gets, which means access can be difficult, but not if you’re in a helicopter.

Our “back yard” has incredible hiking, fishing, photography opportunities and of course hunting.  We live in a hunters paradise with the ‘big three’ in our back yard – Himalayan Tahr, Chamois and Red Deer. We are lucky to have plenty of public land in the region available all year round that is not balloted.

We aren’t the cheapest in town, but we do it well! Historically, we have found our clients don’t want to be dropped in the same area as other parties & have specific time requests for their flights so we rarely backload, but in the event, this does happen we are happy to split the costs between the two groups.

Gus is our resident hunting expert / lead pilot / company owner, and we recommend everyone chatting to him early on in your planning. He’s a wealth of knowledge and will tailor make a trip to suit your needs. For hunters, he is great to check in with on recent animal sightings and if areas you are considering have been heavily hunted or culled recently. Although please don’t call and expect him to give up all his secret spots over the phone!

Some of the huts we drop off at are listed below (click on them for more information) or if you are happy to set up your own tent / camp there are lots more options.

We recommend budgeting $800-$1200 per person for a good hunting site but do have something for everyone with closer sites starting from $900 return, for experienced hunters & hikers or if you have a bigger budget, some really more remote sites are available as well.

For those travelling from out of the area or internationally, we can pass on contact details for firearms hire in Christchurch and there is a local MIA Westlander III tent with a fire available to hire also.

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