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
Today you may choose to enjoy one of the short guided activities from the Lodge - these range from:
- 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
Alternatively, you can enjoy a walk (unguided) in this world designated heritage park or a coastal walk to see Hectors Dolphins.
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