Every price, and what it buys
The standard Franz Josef heli hike is $497. The extended small-group day is $857 and the Queenstown version is $995. Beside them sits a twenty-minute scenic flight over the same ice at $199, which is the comparison everybody actually wants. This page does the arithmetic and then says where the money goes.
Quick answer
The short answer. Budget $497 for the standard heli hike. You are not paying for a longer helicopter ride — you are paying for two transfers, a guide for a small group, a full set of gear, and a route somebody cut into the ice that morning. The online price is the price: there is no cheaper walk-up rate at the base.
Every trip, current fare
The three heli hikes alongside everything else bookable from the village, sorted by price. The right-hand column is cost per hour across the whole trip.
| Trip | Duration | Price | On the ice | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glacier Lookout Guided WalkThe cheapest guided day in the valley | 3 h | $61 | No — viewpoint only | $20.33 | 4.8 · 169 |
| Fox Glacier Half-Day WalkHalf a day in the quieter valley | 3.5 h | $61 | No — valley only | $17.43 | 4.7 · 188 |
| Lake Mapourika KayakMirror water and the whole Main Divide | 3 h | $74 | No | $24.67 | 4.9 · 137 |
| Lake Mapourika Cruise & WalkThe lake without the paddling | 2.5 h | $82 | No | $32.80 | 4.8 · 77 |
| Okarito Kiwi Sanctuary KayakLagoon, rainforest and a kiwi | 4 h | $94 | No | $23.50 | 4.9 · 72 |
| Off-Road Quad Bike TourRuns when the helicopters do not | 2 h | $138 | No | $69.00 | 4.9 · 326 |
| Franz Josef SkydiveThe other way to be above this coast | 3 h | $193 | No | $64.33 | 4.9 · 129 |
| 20-Minute Snow Landing FlightThe glacier from the air, with a landing | 20 min | $199 | Ten minutes on snow | $597.00 | 4.9 · 190 |
| Fox Glacier & Mount Cook FlightFox and Aoraki in thirty-five minutes | 35 min | $268 | Snow landing | $459.43 | 4.5 · 44 |
| 2.5-Hour Heli-HikeThe only way to walk on the glacier | 4–8 h | $497 | 2.5 hours walking | $124.25 | 4.8 · 398 |
| Extended Heli-Hike with LunchA full day on the ice with lunch | 8 h | $857 | About 4 hours walking | $107.12 | 5.0 · 1 |
| Heli-Hike from QueenstownThe heli hike without the drive | 6.5 h | $995 | About 2 hours walking | $153.08 | 4.8 · 28 |
Where the money goes
The comparison people make is $497 against $199 for a scenic flight over the same glacier, and on the face of it that looks absurd. Both start with a helicopter. Both end up over the same ice.
Here is what is different. A scenic flight uses one machine for twenty minutes with five or six people in it, and the marginal cost of your seat is small. A heli hike uses two transfers, and between them a guide is committed to you for the best part of a morning — a guide who was on the ice at seven that morning with an axe, cutting the route, because last week’s route has moved.
Then there is the gear. Boots stiff enough to take a crampon, the crampons themselves, a waterproof shell, overtrousers, a pack and on most operators a helmet and poles. That kit is issued, cleaned, checked and replaced, for every customer, every day.
And there is the cancellation rate. An operator that flies half the mornings it planned to has to cover a full-time guiding roster out of the mornings it does fly.
Divide it by time on the ice and the numbers stop looking strange: roughly two hundred dollars an hour on the glacier, against six hundred an hour in the air on a scenic flight.
The extras
Three things people budget for and two they should not.
The village is five and a half hours from Queenstown and about the same from Christchurch. If the trip exists solely for the glacier, the transport is the bigger line in the budget. The Queenstown day trip at $995 removes eleven hours of driving, which is the honest way to read its price.
Given how often a hike is stood down, one night is a gamble and two is a plan. Budget the extra night as part of the heli hike rather than as accommodation, because that is what it is.
The only two things not supplied. A pair of decent socks and a fleece out of your own bag costs nothing; buying them in the village on the morning does not.
Boots, crampons, jacket, overtrousers, pack and usually a helmet and poles are all included. People turn up having bought hiking boots specially. They are not used; the operator’s boots are the ones that take a crampon.
There is no photographer and no photo package. Whatever you shoot is yours, and the guides will happily take the group shot on your own phone.
Wondering which of the three heli hikes is actually the right one?
Which heli hike to book→Spending less
Book early in your stay. The only tip here that reliably saves money. A cancelled hike on your last morning is one you either lose or rebook at the far end of a five-hour drive. A cancelled hike on your first morning is one you take on your second.
Take the standard hike rather than the extended day. The small-group day is a better product and it is not worth $857 unless you have already done the standard one. Put the difference into a second night.
Come in the shoulder months. March and April are the best conditions of the year and the beds around them cost less than January. The hike itself is the same price; everything around it is not.
Do not wait for a walk-up deal. There is no standby rate. Turning up at the base on the day gets you the same price with fewer slots to choose from, and the morning slots — the ones that go — will be gone.
Book direct
Three heli hikes and the scenic flight everyone compares them with.
★ 4.8 · 398 reviews
★ 5.0 · 1 reviews
★ 4.8 · 28 reviews
★ 4.9 · 190 reviews
Common questions
The standard two-and-a-half-hour trip is $497, including both helicopter transfers, a guide, boots, crampons, jacket and overtrousers. The extended small-group day with lunch is $857 and the Queenstown day trip is $995.
A scenic flight is twenty minutes of shared helicopter time. A heli hike is two transfers, a guide committed to your group for a morning, a full set of issued gear, and a route cut into the ice at seven that morning. Per hour actually spent on the glacier it works out cheaper.
No. The online price and the walk-up price are the same, and booking ahead gets you the morning slots, which are the ones that go. There is no standby rate.
Both helicopter transfers, the guide, boots, crampons, a waterproof jacket, overtrousers and a small pack, and on most operators a helmet and trekking poles. Lunch is included only on the extended day.
Yes, in full, when the operator stands the trip down for weather. Through the listings here you can also cancel yourself free of charge up to twenty-four hours before.
If you have done a standard heli hike before, yes: a smaller group, roughly twice the time on the ice and lunch on the glacier. For a first visit the standard trip does the job, and the difference is better spent on a second night in the village.
Go deeper
What it is, what it costs, and why there is no way onto the ice without one.
VerdictThree heli hikes compared on time on the ice, group size and what is included.
Hike or flyThe most common wrong booking in Franz Josef, settled with both sets of numbers.
Hour by hourFrom the boot fitting to the pick-up, in order, with the boring parts left in.
Which oneTwo glaciers, two villages, and which one to put your only clear morning into.
WeatherWhy a hike is grounded more often than a flight, and how to build a trip around it.
