One flight was not enough and I am going to fly for 40 minutes all the way to the divide and Mt cook. This is the 'Grand Daddy' by Fox and Franz Josef Heli-Services.

This helicopter is manufactured in France and is called a squirrel. This type of heli is smaller and can fly less people, but then I thought that it can go much higher.
I am seating in the front of the heli next to the pilot :-) Our heli first heads up above the Franz Josef Glacier this time and after an incredible scenery, we slowly make our way up to the main divide of the Southern Alps.

The divide is an icy wall with 19 (named) peaks more than 3000m in height. These summits of the Southern Alps lie only 25 km from the Westland National Park coastline and provide a huge barrier to the moisture-bearing winds that sweep in from the Tasman Sea.

The origin of these impressive alpine landscapes is the Alpine fault where the Pacific Plate is being forced up over the Indian-Australian Plate, forming the Southern Alps. On the other side of the Alpine fault, there are sharps contrasts in rock types: greywacke and schist from the Pacific Plate.  These rocks were formed under ancient seas from 200 to 150 millions years ago by the compression of sediments.

Flying with the helicopter gives you a very close look on the snow capped mountains and cols. We cross the divide near Douglas Peak (3077m) and have a view on the Rudolph Glacier, the De La Terre Ridge and The Tasman Glacier. The panorama is magnificent!

In the distance, I then see the 3 weeks old iceberg on the Tasman Lake. I read about these icebergs in the Otago Daily Time during my stay in Dunedin. They was on beautiful picture on the front page showing the white icebergs and a very small boat cruising around!

Now it seems that the pure ice color was replaced by dirt. Anyway, I am happy to see them. We continue our flight over Mt Haast (3114m), Mt Tasman (3491m), Mt Dampier (3440m) and finally around Aoraki/Mt Cook (3754m). It's so beautiful!!!

We then land on the neve of the Fox Glacier below the Albert Glacier at an altitude of 2000m. For my second time there, I go a little bit more around and take some fun pictures in the sun. It's warm up there!

The flight back goes down the Foz Glacier (in Maori: Te Moeka o Tuawe).

We fly above the Chancellor Hut and the large waterfall going out of right side the Fox Glacier.

The white crevices and ice architectures are awesome: the Fox Glacier is about 3000m long and flying over its full length is a unique experience.

In total this morning I flew 70 minutes and I saw so many beautiful things that it seems that I was up a much longer time. Every second of it was worth it!