The day dawned clear and calm. What to do? Heck, it’s New Zealand! Why not take a float plane over the park? I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the morning. I met my pilot, Alan in the morning after he finished his school bus route, and off we went. We flew over the Kepler Mountains and west over Lake Manapouri to the fiords. We flew between mountain passes and then up and over some of the higher peaks. Alan explained the geography as we flew and pointed out the interesting terrain, such as a frozen lake emptying in to another lake named Victoria which then cascaded down thousands of feet to the valley floor as Victoria Falls. We also flew over terrain picked for use in filming Jurassic Park (they actually never used it as it rained too much and too long so Mr. Spielberg moved back to Hawaii for the shots). The scenery was incredible. We buzzed our hotel on the way back to Te Anau and then had a smooth landing on the lake. It was a natural “high”!
