Day 6 - Queenstown to Lake Moeraki
Overnight: Lake Moeraki Wilderness Lodge
Meals: Breakfast

This morning drive to Wanaka (approx 1.5 hr)

There is the opportunity of taking a helicopter flight: fly up a long remote mountain valley, named Minaret Burn by the early New Zealand Scottish settlers, to Mt Aspiring National Park where you will make a high altitude landing. This landing site allows great views of Mt Aspiring “The Matterhorn of the South”, some of its many glaciers and the Southern Alps. After a short stroll, fly over the Main Divide to the West Coast side of Mt Aspiring to explore more of this impressive mountain and the best of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. You will see numerous glaciers - some short, steep hanging ones and others up to 10 kilometres long. Fly down the Bonar Glacier to see cascading cliffs of compressed blue ice over 50 years old, deep crevasses, mountaineers’ huts perched on rocky ledges, ice and water falls, sheer rock faces, mountain tarns; you will see much more magnificent mountain grandeur before returning to town via the braided Matukituki River Valley and over Lake Wanaka. Flight time is approximately one hour.

Upon departing Wanaka you continue north, along Lake Hawea, driving through the magnificent Haast Pass, which links the West Coast to the Southern Lakes region, and on to Lake Moeraki (approx. 4.5 hrs).

The West Coast is a world of primitive, towering rain forest; bizarre limestone landscapes, mountains and glaciers, tranquil lakes, rushing rivers, rare birds and plants and endless recreational opportunities.

UNESCO declared south west New Zealand a World Heritage area, to stand alongside the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Everest and other outstanding examples of our world’s heritage

Day 7 - Lake Moeraki
Overnight: Lake Moeraki Wilderness Lodge
Meals: Breakfast

• Ancient Trees, Birds & Plants of the Rain Forest
• Living in the Wilderness Environment
• Sunset over the Tasman Sea
• Easy Canoeing on Lake Moeraki
• Freshwater Life - Feed the Large Eels and Trout
• Glow worms, Morepork Owls, Freshwater Crayfish & the Southern Cross

The Dairy, Private Luxury Hotel

Following extensive refurbishment in May/June of this year, the former Dairy Guesthouse in Queenstown is now to be known as The Dairy, Private Luxury Hotel.

Wilderness Lodge, Lake Moeraki

Spectacular beaches that are home to fur seals and crested penguins, untouched lowland rainforests spread between pristine lakes and rivers which drain the snow capped Southern Alps. Few places on earth can match the unique natural setting of the Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki in the heart of the 2.7 million hectares South West New Zealand World Heritage Area, Te Wahi Pounamu ( Maori translation: the place of greenstone jade)

The Lodge is landscaped in a lakeside clearing surrounded by 1000 year old rainforest trees. It offers a high level of comfort in attractive Lodge rooms (all rooms have private bathrooms) with lounges and restaurant that overlook the lovely Moeraki rapids. A relaxed drink and meal in the tranquil Moeraki Lounge as you watch the river roll by, native birds and trout jumping is a wonderful tonic in a hectic world.