Peter Simson and his kids Natalia & Oscar do exactly that when they visit Queenstown in the winter. Flying out of the Alpine Choppers hanger with Stefan at the controls and Peter Rasmussan (Lead Guide) and myself on a charter to find Powder in the Mountains not far from town was our mission.

We were straight into it, finding safe lines, as we had recieved new snow over the previous days and snow stability was not the best, and route selection was the key to having a day to remember for the right reasons.

A private charter is the ultimate in Heliskiing, and Alpine Heliski are the guys to talk to when it really counts. If you want the mountains in our back yard to feel like you own them for a day or 2 as well as a helicopter then get in touch with us at Alpine Heliski and see for yourself.

Peter, Natalia and Oscar loved every moment of the day, and were skiing like there was no tomorrow, take a look at our photos of the day and picture yourself being there…

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Queenstown has had the coldest and driest months of June and July in its history of recorded weather!! When i am Ski Guiding with Alpine Heliski  i often chuckle to myself and think about the spring time when the snow i am skiing on melts and eventually makes it way down into the river systems that sustain all of the Rainbow and Brown Trout we hunt in the Summer time.

I know for a fact that at the bottom of this particular valley where we skiied with Rob Morrison and family and friends there is one such river that is home to some of the best dry fly fishing around.

Once a fisherman, always a fisherman!!

We spend alot of time on the lakes and river valleys spotting fish. Sometimes we forget that there are eyes in the hills and mountains above us. The south island back country is full of wild game that like the trout we hunt are as cunning and can be there one second and gone the next!! Just like knowing how and where to find trout in the rivers and lakes, we reckon we are pretty good at finding some of the wild game that run freely about the mountain ranges of the south island. Gordy Watson and i spend some time checking out whats checking us out when we are on the rivers. We shot some photos of some Fellow Deer that roam the hills not far from where we often go fishing.

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Joe, Beth, Katie & Joe jr, were here in Queenstown visiting from Alabama. Winter will often see the lakes glassy calm with scenes you could make a calender out of. I teamed up with Gordy Watson and we had a good look around the top of the lake. We spotted some good fish and had some opportunity but i think the scenery got in the way!!

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