Tasman Glacier by Helicopter

There are two ways to see the Tasman Glacier by helicopter: a scenic flight that lands on or above the ice for a few minutes, or a heli hike that flies you onto the glacier and leaves you there with a guide for up to two hours. If you can walk steadily for a couple of hours, book the 3-hour Tasman Glacier helicopter ride and hike with Mt Cook Glacier Guiding, from $569 per person and rated 4.9 from 344 reviews. If you would prefer to stay close to the aircraft, a 40-minute flight with a snow landing on the glacier starts at $363.

The glacier you are flying to

Haupapa/Tasman Glacier is New Zealand’s longest glacier: 23 km long, up to 3 km wide and about 600 metres deep near the Hochstetter Icefall, according to the Department of Conservation. Its lower reaches are covered in rock debris, so the clean white ice you picture sits further up the valley, which is why every trip here starts with a flight.

At the glacier’s foot is Tasman Lake, which did not exist in the early 1970s and has grown quickly as the ice melts. DOC describes icebergs on it in summer and lake ice in winter. Every helicopter trip up the Tasman Valley passes over it. If you only want to see the icebergs, the free Tasman Glacier View track is a 30-minute return walk with 300-odd steps to a lookout over the lake, though from there you see the lake and the glacier’s end, not the upper ice.

Heli hike or scenic flight: the options side by side

Choose a heli hike if walking on the ice is the point. You get crampons, a guide cutting steps through ice formations and time to take it in. Choose a scenic flight if you want the whole glacier in one view, from Tasman Lake up past the Hochstetter Icefall, and a short stop on the snow. The Southern Lakes flight hovers over the glacier before landing on it, and its pilot may shut the helicopter down so you can hear the quiet. For a closer look at landings in general, see our snow landing guide, and if you are weighing flight lengths, our 25 vs 40 vs 55 minute comparison maps what each one covers.

The two heli hikes compared

Both cost $569 per person on GetYourGuide and both run about three hours from Mount Cook Airport, but they are separate products with different guides.

Mt Cook Glacier Guiding’s trip starts with a 45-minute safety briefing, then a 15-minute flight to a drop-off point on a remote part of the glacier, up to two hours on the ice and a 15-minute flight back. The listing offers 8:45 am and 10:45 am starts, and supplies leather boots, woollen socks, crampons, a walking pole and a waterproof jacket. The operator sets the minimum age at 9, with children aged 9 to 16 accompanied by an adult, rates the fitness level as low to moderate, and needs at least four people for a trip to depart. Its own rate at the time of writing was NZ$995 per adult. Read our breakdown of this heli hike for the full itinerary.

The Helicopter Line’s version includes pickup and drop-off in Mount Cook Village, a 20-minute briefing and a two-hour glacier walk, and on the return flight it passes close to the Hochstetter Icefall on the east face of Aoraki. The Helicopter Line’s page names Alpine Guides as the guiding company, sets the minimum age at 10 and asks that you can walk at least a kilometre and climb or descend stairs easily. Its own rate at the time of writing was NZ$945. See our breakdown of The Helicopter Line heli hike.

Book Mt Cook Glacier Guiding if you have a nine-year-old with you or want the higher-rated trip. Book The Helicopter Line if a pickup from the village makes your morning easier. Both are also on Viator, with fewer reviews than on GetYourGuide.

How hard is the walking?

In plain terms: you walk slowly over uneven, sometimes bumpy ice in stiff boots with spikes strapped underneath, stepping up and down the steps your guide cuts, for up to two hours. It is cooler on the glacier than in the valley, and the glare off the ice is strong. It is a guided walk that needs no climbing experience, but if a kilometre on foot or a few flights of stairs would trouble you, a scenic flight with a landing is the better fit. Bring warm layers, a hat, gloves, sunglasses and a snack; the operator advises against jeans.

Tasman heli hike vs Franz Josef

The Tasman and Franz Josef glaciers sit on opposite sides of the Main Divide. The Tasman is New Zealand’s longest glacier, on the drier eastern side of the Alps. Franz Josef/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere is on the West Coast in Westland Tai Poutini National Park, where DOC records up to five metres of rain a year. The prevailing westerlies drop most of their rain on the West Coast before reaching Mount Cook, so the weather on the two sides often differs on the same day. If your trip takes in both, a heli hike on each side gives you two chances. This site covers the Mount Cook side only; if you want to see Franz Josef without a second booking, the 55-minute flights from Mount Cook cross the Divide and fly over both Franz Josef and Fox.

The Glentanner heli hike is not on the glacier

The Glentanner High Country Heli Hike is a different outing. It lands high on Glentanner Station’s own land and walks you about 7 km down a farm track past alpine tarns, with views of Lake Pukaki and Aoraki, with a tea stop at a historic hut on the way. It is an easy walk and a lovely morning, but you will not set foot on ice. It is listed on Viator as the Glentanner High Country Heli Hike, from $290 per person with a 5.0 rating from 53 reviews.

What a glacier flight looks like

Most flights from the Mount Cook side head straight up the Tasman Valley. Within a few minutes you are over braided riverbeds and Tasman Lake, which began forming in 1974 and has grown as the glacier has retreated. From the air you can see how the lake, the grey moraine and the glacier fit together, which is hard to make out from the ground.

Further up the valley the ridges close in on both sides, hanging glaciers sit in the high basins, and Aoraki stops being a summit on the horizon and becomes part of the wall around you. The park has 19 peaks over 3,000 metres, so the flight is not just a close look at one mountain. You can follow the whole glacier in one view: snowfields, broken ice, the long valley of ice, the moraine, the lake and the river leaving it.

The sight most people remember is the Hochstetter Icefall, where ice pours off the high ground near Aoraki onto the Tasman Glacier in huge broken blocks. INFLITE’s glacier flights and The Helicopter Line’s 40-minute Mountains High flight pass it. Nobody flies you around the summit itself: pilots fly by the weather, the terrain and aviation rules, and what you get is a changing view of Aoraki’s faces as you move through the range.

What the landing is like

On flights that publish a landing time, expect 10 to 15 minutes on the snow. INFLITE gives that for its 45-minute Glacier Highlights flights. It sounds short, and it feels longer than it is, because there is nothing you need to do: you step out, the aircraft beside you is the only made thing in a white bowl of mountains, you take your photos and you listen to the quiet.

A scenic landing is not a short glacier hike. You stay near the aircraft on a site the pilot picked for safety, so you will not walk to crevasses or ice caves. You may see blue ice from the air, in crevasses and around the icefall, but the snow at the landing site is usually white. If crampons, blue ice and two hours on the glacier are what you want, book one of the heli-hikes above.

Aoraki is the view most people fly for, but no operator can promise it. Cloud can sit on the summit while the valley below is clear, and a grey morning in the village can still give a good flying window higher up. Pilots change the route and the landing site to suit the day, so treat the itinerary as the plan, not a guarantee.

Glacier landing or alpine landing

INFLITE puts the difference plainly: an alpine landing is on a mountain site somewhere in the national park, and a glacier landing is on the glacier itself. Its 25-minute flight lands at an alpine site, which may have no snow in the warmer months.

A flight that passes the Tasman Glacier, shows you Aoraki and lands in the snow can still not land on the glacier. That can be the better buy if the view is what you are after. If standing on the Tasman is the point, ask one question before you pay: does this flight land on the Tasman Glacier itself, or at an alpine site?

Shoes and clothes for a glacier landing

For a scenic landing you do not need crampons or boots. Wear closed shoes with grip, like trainers or walking shoes, and leave sandals, flip-flops and smooth-soled shoes at the hotel. The landing site is colder than the village, so bring a warm layer and long trousers, and take sunglasses even on a cold day: the glare off snow is strong. Our best flights guide covers cameras, drones and photo tips.

The glacier through the year

Flights run all year, whenever the weather allows. The upper glacier has snow and ice in every month, but the landscape around it changes. In winter, June to August, fresh snow covers much more of the mountains, and the weather is more likely to disrupt road and flight plans. In summer, December to February, the days are long and the green and brown valley floor, turquoise lakes and grey moraine stand out against the white upper glacier. Spring and autumn fall between the two. The weather on your day matters more than the month.

A day around the flight

A morning flight leaves the afternoon free, and if the weather delays you, there is still time to fly later the same day. After it, drive up the Tasman Valley to the Tasman Glacier View track: you will recognise the lake and the glacier’s end that you have just flown over. Or walk the Hooker Valley Track, which gives you the same mountains at walking pace, ending at Hooker Lake under Aoraki. DOC warns that the Hooker Valley car park can be full between 10 am and 4 pm from November to March. Do not fit a long walk in before your flight if it risks making you late, because the aircraft will not wait.

Four things to compare before booking

A 35-minute flight with an alpine landing and a 40-minute flight with a Tasman Glacier landing look almost the same on a booking page. They are different trips, and so are a 45-minute Tasman flight and a 55-minute flight that crosses to the West Coast. Before you book, check:

1. Where does it land?
2. How long is the whole flight?
3. Does it cross the Main Divide?
4. Does the time include the landing?

Landing on the Tasman by ski plane

The ski planes of Mount Cook Ski Planes & Helicopters land on the upper snowfields of the Tasman Glacier itself. The operator describes these glacier landings as its year-round way to stand on snow, where some helicopter peak sites can be bare in the heat of summer. GetYourGuide does not sell the ski-plane-only flight, but Viator does:

If you cannot decide between the two aircraft, our ski plane vs helicopter guide sets them side by side, and the helicopter and ski plane combo lets you fly one up and the other back, landing on the Tasman Glacier.

Before you book

Every trip here is weather-dependent. If the operator cancels for weather, INFLITE, The Helicopter Line and Southern Lakes all offer a rebooking or a full refund, and every GetYourGuide listing here has free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Operators suggest booking early in your stay so there is time to rebook on a clearer day. To compare every flight at Mount Cook, see our prices guide or the full comparison on the homepage.

When you have a date in mind, check availability for the Tasman Glacier heli hike.