The first segment of the 4th flying day involved flying from Wanaka, NZWF, to Minaret Station airstrip. Matt gave us a briefing about that agstrip. It consists of two cow pastures separated by a fence with a large gate in the middle, where the strip doglegs slightly. Matt was hoping the winds would allow landing on it with the lake to the right so that the portion of the strip where the cows are normally absent would allow landing in the slightly-uphill direction. However, it didn't work out that way. We landed with the lake on the left side, meaning we had to fly over the cows in the first pasture, who were totally uninterested in the airplanes overhead, and land slightly downhill once past the gate. The second pasture actually also contained one cow, apparently the bull for the herd, which also showed no concern about the two Cessnas. Minaret Station is on the western shore of Lake Wanaka at Minaret Bay.
The second leg took us from Minaret north to Makarora Airstrip, NZMW, on the east side of Haast Pass, where we stopped for fuel and mid-morning tea. Makarora is 600m long.
From Makarora we then flew to Mussel Point at the mouth of the Turnbull River on the western shore near Haast, which we had visited by car the previous day on our day off from flying.
We drove from there to a jetboat ride on the Waiatoto River up into the Southern Alps with Waiatoto River Safaris.
Jet boat on the Waiatoto River:
After the jetboat ride we flew from Mussel Point south-southeast back to Wanaka, NZWF, through Mt. Aspiring/Tititea National Park.
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Last modified 16 February 2025