On my most recent trip to New Zealand, Geoff and I were lucky enough to get a flight over the Fiordlands with Heliworks, a company out of Queenstown. We did a lot of scouting before hand at what Heli company would take us to the photo locations we wanted and Heliworks met all of the criteria and more!
There are numerous companies that fly out of Queenstown for all similar rates but Heliworks has a commission on one location called the Earnslaw Burn where they filmed part of the Hobbit. Now I am not a Lord of the rings fan but I was particularly interested in the glacier and the hundreds of waterfalls at the Earnslaw burn and when we landed is was like a different world! We were directly under the glacier and surrounded by waterfalls.
We also landed on a glacier beside Mount Tutoko, the highest peak in Fiordland. The heavy clouds were rolling in so it was a quick landing but we managed to get some beautiful images. The most stunning scene I think we could all agree on was Lake Erskine. It was the most vibrant color of blue any of us have ever seen. We thought Lake Quill would stun us but Lake Erskine was the winner of the beauty contest. I would love to go back and photograph that lake in morning light.
I always get a little bit nervous before heading up in a chopper, but thankfully Heliworks runs a company where pilots have been trained with over 50,000 flying hours clocked in. They also operate an emergency 24 hour line so you know they are trust worthy.
I absolutely love doing aerial photography, especially when it is so easy to take stunning images. If you have never gone up in a helicopter before I suggest you put it on your bucket list. It is really worth saving your pennies for. The truth of it is, I can capture the most incredible photos from the air to share with everyone, but nothing compares to being up there and experiencing the exhilaration of feeling like you're face to face with the higest mountains on the Island.
