This is my last will and testament.
Larry has booked a helicopter flight up to the glaciers this am. We had not planned on going, but the weather is superb, so we cannot let this one slip by. So, if you don't hear from us, you will know where we are. I have never been in a helicopter , so this is a double whammy experience.
Cheers
Well, as you can see, we made it. What a great experience. We are so glad we did it. The pilot is a young lad just trying to get his hours in going up and down to the glaciers. It is a twenty minute ride, 7 minutes on the glacier. So when you get out on the glacier we all take pictures and he somehow takes yours without you seeing and near the end of the trip shows you the pamphlet with your picture in it for $20. What nincompoop is not going to buy it? Anyways, it was a smooth exhilarating trip. I didn't expect it to be so smooth. I told the young fella that and almost gave him a kiss, thinking of Mark when he stared flying. We had a lovely young couple with us from India and had a chance to talk a bit before taking off. They were very sweet and in love. The company we flew with have 5 helicopters, one on the ground for maintenance. There are more than 2 operations. You see the helicopters constantly except on low visibility days. On the glacier he leaves the machine running and gets out with. I guess they're not going to take a chance on it not restarting. Even down below he left it running and they fuelled it while loading passengers. The pilot looked like Patrick, the ex bosun from HYC
We had hoped to do another hike before we left for our new home, but because of the helicopter ride which we hadn't expected, we ended up driving 4 and 1/2 hours to a place called Lake Wanaka which is on the way to Qweenstown. Magnificent scenery. Cathy Cirko, are you listening? It is so beautiful and pristine here. The pictures won't do it justice, I'm sure. This is just north of Fjordland, which we had seen on the ship. The terrain is similar, except you see the lakes that are crystal clear and a lot of sand at the base of the mountains. What is amazing is that the only life you see are the tourists on the one and only road.
And oh, by the way. I drove for the first time in N.Z. And Larry said I did a pretty good job. I had to drive some of the switchbacks, which there are a lot of everywhere in N.Z. And the neatest bridges. All the bridges are 1-lane. So, sometimes, you have to wait your turn.
Larry here, the drive over was amazing, miles and miles of no signs of man except the road. We passed an alpine ski hill on the way, we are now getting I to the Southern mountains. Today we land on the glacier at 6,700 feet ASL. We flew in Hughes 500, very tight but smooth for a bucket of bolts. That's the same type that Magnum PI used. Tomorrow off to Queenstown, deeper into the mountains. We went to the grocery store to pick up dinner, (lamb chops on the Barbie), it's amazing how many tourists like us are buying dinner. L
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