Makarora helicopter operator flying scenic trips over Mount Aspiring National Park, the Heli Siberia day, and hunting and fishing charters.
Makarora sits 45 minutes north of Wānaka on the Haast Pass road, on the edge of Mount Aspiring National Park, and Backcountry Helicopters flies out of it. Part of the family-owned Wanaka Helicopters group, they have been working this country for more than twenty years.
What they list now is scenic flying over the park — the Siberia Valley, Mt Pollux, the glaciers, with an alpine landing — along with charter work for hunting and fishing and for commercial jobs across Otago, South Westland and the coast.
Heli Siberia
The trip most visitors take. A flight over the national park into the Siberia Valley, a three-hour walk down through the beech, and a jet boat out on the Wilkin and Makarora rivers with Wilkin River Jets. A full day, and one of the few ways to see that country from the ground.
Heliskiing no longer appears among the trips they publish, so ask before planning a ski day around them.
