The honest answer
Five hundred dollars for half a day is a lot of money, and roughly half the trips scheduled here across a season never leave the ground. Those are the two facts that make people hesitate, and they are both true. This page answers the question properly: who should book, who should not, and what you are actually paying for.
Quick answer
The short answer. Yes, if you can give the village two nights and you book the first morning. No, if you have one night and a bus to catch, because the odds are against you and a refund is not what you came for. What you are buying is not a view — it is the only way to walk on this glacier at all.
The case against
It is a lot of money for half a day. Five hundred dollars, of which about two and a half hours are spent doing the thing you paid for. Nobody should pretend that is cheap, and for a family of four it is a serious number.
The weather might take it. Roughly half the trips scheduled here across a year are affected, and heli hikes are grounded more often than scenic flights because the machine has to come back for you. You get your money back, but if you drove five hours and have one morning, a refund is a poor consolation.
You have to be able to walk on it. Two hours on uneven ice in crampons is not difficult, but it is not nothing. If your knees are marginal, the money buys you a difficult morning rather than a good one.
The case for
You are not paying for a better view of the glacier. You are paying for the only way into it.
Strip out the marketing and there are three things in the ticket.
Access. This is the argument that settles it. Since the terminal face collapsed in 2012 there has been no walking route onto Franz Josef Glacier. Not an expensive one, not a difficult one — none. The helicopter is not the premium way of standing on this glacier. It is the only way.
Time. A scenic flight lands on snow and gives you ten minutes. A heli hike gives you two and a half hours, and the difference is not quantitative. Ten minutes is a photograph. Two and a half hours is a place you were in.
The features. Tunnels, moulins, pressure ridges and crevasse walls are all ground-level things. No flight shows you one, at any price, and they are what people describe years later.
And one more, which is harder to price. The route was cut that morning by somebody with an axe, because last week’s route has moved. Nobody has walked exactly where you walk, and nobody will again.
Who should and should not book
Based on what people actually regret afterwards.
You have two mornings and an afternoon. The odds are firmly in your favour, and a cancellation has somewhere to go. This is the case the whole page is built around.
Take the first departure and have the scenic flight or the quad bikes reserved as well. Both are free to cancel, and one of them will probably run.
A twenty-minute flight at $199 slips through a window that will not carry a hike, and it still lands on snow. On a single tight morning it is the one that goes.
Two hours on uneven ice in crampons is the product. If that is doubtful, the money is better spent on the flight, which asks nothing of you and shows you the whole glacier.
The standard hike is a first-timer’s trip and it is excellent as one. If you have done this, the small-group day at $857 goes further with about four people per guide.
Most operators set a minimum around eight to ten years. Under that, the scenic flight and the Lake Mapourika trips are the ones that work.
If you are leaning towards booking, the next question is which of the three.
Which heli hike to book→Book direct
Two hikes, a flight and the free-ish valley walk.
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Common questions
Yes, if you can give the village two nights and book the first morning. It is the only way to walk on the glacier since foot access closed in 2012, and two and a half hours on the ice is a completely different thing from ten minutes beside a helicopter. On a single night with a bus to catch, the weather odds make it a poor bet.
Per hour actually spent on the glacier it is about six times cheaper. Whether the total is worth it depends on whether you want to be on the ice or above it, which is genuinely the whole question.
Take it. The twenty-minute flight at $199 lands on snow, lets you out with the rotors stopped, and shows you the entire glacier and the Southern Alps. It is not a consolation prize.
Book it anyway, early in your stay. Cancellation is free and the refund is automatic, so an uncertain forecast costs you nothing — while a clear window that arrives when you have no booking costs you the whole trip.
Two things, consistently: booking the hike for their last morning, and booking one night in the village. Almost nobody regrets the money once they have been on the ice.
Guides cut and check the route every morning, groups stay together, and everything technical is done for you. What you are asked to do is walk carefully in crampons and stay behind the person in front.
Go deeper
What it is, what it costs, and why there is no way onto the ice without one.
PricesThree heli hikes priced against the scenic flight, and what the money actually buys.
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.
