Thread: DIY Questions from a Canadian

Originally Posted by MtnMan

Is there somewhere with info on where they can drop you and where they can't?
Can you ask to be dropped anywhere providing they can physically land there?

I've always walked and haven't flown in so I'm not really aware of the rules. Apart from ballot areas I don't know much else. You mentioned National parks as no landing zones??? I know they fly to places like Christmas Flat hut in the Karangarua.

In all honesty best bet would be to speak with a heli operator to get firm information.

You can’t be just dropped anywhere even if they could land there.

Generally, no landing in national parks from my understanding, but operators will have concessions to land in certain places of the park but not just wherever you want, so you can take advantage of it, for example glacier viewing landings. Yeah re Christmas flat I would assume there’s concessions there, I know you can land in the Douglas too. However, I don’t believe you can land anywhere in the Copland…


I sometimes use the tahr ballot maps and a map of national park boundaries to understand where is off limits.

My comment probably a bit of a generalisation, but the point I was trying to articulate was don’t expect a helicopter drop off to mean you are hunting somewhere that’s rarely hunted… Christmas flat a great example. Gets hunted plenty, not to say that means it’s a bad spot as I understand it plenty of animals there.

All three potential areas that have been listed in original post (landsborough, Mt Cook, fox glacier) all have limitations on where you could actually get dropped off due to wilderness zones/ national parks.