FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
Please call us on 0800 676 264 1 hour before your scheduled flight time on the day of your flight for your Weather Check.
If you are self driving to us at Queenstown Airport, your check in time is 30 minutes prior to departure.
We suggest you bring the following with you to make it a great day out:
- Any essential medication
- Sunglasses
- Sunscreen
- Camera – make sure it’s fully charged
- Warm clothing layers – including a decent jacket
- Sensible footwear is essential
- Bottle of water
- A daypack
- Snacks
Your roundtrip flight will be approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Tasman Glacier Explorers will provide life jackets for your boat trip.
No, but you can pre-purchase a picnic lunch from us when booking online for an additional $25pp. We have vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options on request.
You are welcome to bring your own picnic lunch with you as well. You will also have some time after your Tasman Glacier Explorers trip to grab a bite to eat at the Hermitage Hotel Cafe, with Mt. Cook as your view, subject to your pilots’ discretion.
No. As we operate fixed-wing aircraft, we are unable to land on glaciers. Your landing for this trip will be on a runway/airstrip on the outskirts of Mt. Cook Village. We will then team you up with our partners at Glacier Explorers for your boat trip on the Tasman Terminal Lake.
You will need to be able to walk 1.5km (1 mile) in 25 minutes. This is an alpine walk through the Mt. Cook National Park to the boat departure point.
The minimum age for children on this trip is 4 years old. Each child aged 4-9 years inclusive must be accompanied by an adult (i.e. 1:1 ratio).
Glacier Explorers operated from the start of September to the end of May. The glacier lake freezes over winter. The start of each season is subject to the lake thawing.
We had a great trip with Glenorchy Air! We did the trip where they hand your over to Tasman Explorers for a boat tour of Tasman Lake and the glacier at Mt Cook. I’ll review the Tasman Explorers part separately. The flight was fabulous! The van picked us up at our hotel and communicated well about their arrival time. We waited only a few minutes before getting on board a little Cessna - we had only 3 passengers total plus another employee. Every seat has a window view and the pilot told us about what we were seeing in our incredible views. Upon landing at Mt Cook, the pilot and colleague took one passenger to the Hooker Valley trailhead and then took us to the Hermitage to hand us off to our guided tour. They met us when we returned and we flew home on another scenic route with more explanation of what we were seeing. We felt safe and thrilled the entire trip! Flying to Mt Cook was incredible because of the views and vantage point - it was a great use of our time and worth the cost.
JoKnits via Tripadvisor