Which country is the most beautiful of them all? If New Zealand isn't on your list of contenders, maybe it’s time that you paid a visit. Formed by the collision of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, it is home to a wide range of beautiful landscapes; from idyllic beaches and voluptuous volcanoes to rugged fiords and the Southern Alps mountain range.

I'll invite you to join me on one of my all time favourite general aviation tours, exploring the centre of the South Island and its magnificent Alpine glaciers. The flight will take about an hour and ends at the highest peak in the country - the majestic Mount Cook. There'll be plenty of spectacular scenery on the way, an area unspoilt from any big cities awaits!

Description:

Our flight starts at the rather sleepy port of Timaru, on the East Coast of the South Island. This is cattle country, the main production being meat and dairy products. On our first leg, we'll fly over pastures towards breathtaking hill formations and head to the placid, but very scenic Lake Tekapo, which is fed by the ice cold Cass Glacier. The township of Tekapo itself is a quaint little village nestled in the heart of the Mackenzie Country (a Lord of the Rings filming location). This sparsely populated area is also home to the World Gliding Championships - the land formations create a real gliding paradise.

After a quick stop in Tekapo, we'll head to Lake Pukaki, another crystal clear glacier lake. It sits at the base of the Tasman Glacier, which runs from deep within the Mount Cook National Park southwards, forming a large valley in its path. We'll end our little tour at the tiny Mount Cook village, a base station for climbers and rescue operations. The village is at the base of the towering Mount Cook - the beauty of this place is simply mind dazzling.

The climate in New Zealand is famous for being very changeable. In general, Timaru is known for being hot in the summer and cold in the winter, just as Mackenzie Country and the Mount Cook National Park. The East Coast, sitting on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, is exposed to strong coastal winds, yet the further you travel inland, the more the high mountains ranges will protect you from the blustery elements.

We'll use the payware Carenado Cessna U206G with ZK-RBE paint on this tour. It is easy to fly, as it basically is a C172 on steroids. With an extended fuselage, a more powerful engine and a longer cabin, it is a popular bush and utility aircraft. Cessna began manufacturing the airframe in 1964, and it is still in production today, with over 6500 206’s flying worldwide, as well as many different variants. 16 are registered in New Zealand.

For the fullest experience I recommend a few add-ons. I highly recommend the Sim Pilot Experience mesh - a must have. Equally recommended is the Sim Pilot Experience payware topo, giving you much more realism. Also get the Sim Pilot Experience freeware landclass, which accurately depicts the ground textures and includes much more realistic lake colours.

There are two photoreal addons available, firstly being the greater Timaru area, and secondly the greater Lake Tekapo area. To accompany those, there are also some nicely detailed 3D airport sceneries for all of the three airports we will be visiting.

Setting up the flight:

We'll start at the Richard Pearce Airport (named after the Kiwi inventor and aviation pioneer) at Timaru (NZTU), head directly to Tekapo aerodrome (NZTL) for a quick stop, and end our flight at Mount Cook aerodrome (NZMC). This will be a VFR flight with visual navigation references, so you won’t need any navigation frequencies. We’re going to use the default airplane setup and fill the fuel tanks up to the 30% - that's all we will require for the approximately 60 mile trip.

We'll recreate a nice peaceful flight - a typical mid Winter's day in the Southern Hemisphere. Set the date to August the 7th, and choose an early evening local time, I suggest 4:08 pm. Set the weather to 0 precipitation and winds, 40 nm visibility, with tops at 15,000 feet, and clear or light stratus clouds high up in the atmosphere. Also, in the wind tab under advanced weather options, set up some light turbulence to recreate the mountain flying effect.

Leg one: Timaru to Tekapo

Load yourself at Gate 2 at NZTU. Run though your preflight checks, turn on your NAV lights and reset your altimeter. Set your Fuel Tank Selector to left.

Tune into the Unicom traffic frequency on 119.50 and announce your intention to taxi to tarmac runway 2. It has a length of 4200 feet, and with zero winds, and a light weight plane, you should only need one notch of flaps to get airborne. Roll at 50 kias, climb out at 80 kias and retract flaps.

Once in the in the sky, continue on the runway heading of 020 and climb up to 2200 feet. In about 2 minutes time, you will reach the Opihi River. When you are directly overhead it, turn right and follow it east towards the ocean for about another five miles, continuing your climb up to 5000 feet. As you reach the coastline, turn right once again to follow the coast south towards Timaru point, where the main township is.

Look out of your right hand window, and you will be able to see a beautiful sun setting over the distant mountains, casting long shadows over the quiet rural farmland below you. With your throttle pushed in to 85%, you should be purring along at around 130 kias, and you will shortly arrive over Timaru. Once you reach the centre of town, you will perform a gentle bank right to 292 degrees. This heading will set you up for a direct track to Lake Tekapo.

Keep at 5000 feet until you clear the first set of hills, and then begin a climb up to 8000 feet in order to clear the Hunters Hills which lie directly in front of you. Watch the sun casting many different grey tones of shadows onto the terrain below, making the ridges and valleys look like a skeleton of a giant sleeping dinosaur!

A peek out your left hand window will reveal the first sight of snow capped mountains. Keep your airspeed at around 130 kias for roughly 15 minutes, and notice the small foothills growing into rocky mountainsides. After you passed the Hunters, you should reduce your airspeed to about 100 kias, and turn left towards the small skiplane base airdrome at Tekapo – just behind the small village.

Tune into the Tekapo Unicom on 123.5 and announce you will be making a nonstop landing on runway 29, then immediately start to make your descent right over the mountains down to 3000 feet. The asphalt runway is only 3100 feet long, and very thin (41 feet), so be careful not to let your speed increase as you line up for landing. Lower your flaps two notches, and prepare for a bump down at 2500 above sea level, not getting distracted by the gorgeous, serene blue lake setting out of your left-hand window. Your approach speed should be 80 kias.

Leg two: Tekapo to Mount Cook

Soak in the scenic glacier lakes and you'll understand why there are numerous air safari companies operating in the area - a truly amazing beauty of nature. As you let your wheels roll along the ground at this sleepy little airport, you will be able to see Mount Cook at two o'clock - our next destination.

Push your throttle back in, and maintain enough speed (50 kias) to let your aircraft take off. Follow the runway heading of 290 degrees, retract your flaps and climb up to 3500 feet. Switch your fuel to right tank. Once at the desired altitude, bank right to a heading of 011 degrees and fly towards the smaller Lake Alexandrina which sits to the left of Lake Tekapo. Start climbing to 7000 feet. To your right, you will be able to see the Two Thumb Range partially lit up by the late evening sun, another scenic sight.

You will soon reach the end of Lake Alexandrina. Ahead of you will see a river, coming from Cass Glacier, running across your path into Lake Tekapo. Perform a left hand turn above the river, and follow it away from Lake Tekapo into the mountains, heading at 301 degrees and continue climbing to 9000 feet.

Continue at a heading of 301 degrees until the glacier bends away from you towards the right. At this point, the textures below will become a distinctive white snowy colour, and Mount Cook's peak will be clearly visible directly in front of you. Make a sharp left hand turn, and follow a heading at 245 degrees above the mountain tops.

At eleven o'clock, you should be able to see another huge water feature; Lake Pukaki, which runs parallel to Lake Tekapo and is also fed from a glacier, the Tasman Glacier. When the valley comes into view, you will once again need to descend rapidly for another high altitude landing. This time, we'll be touching down at NZMC on runway 31, which is built at an altitude of 2100 degrees.

Tune into NZMC traffic on 131.0 and alert the frequency to your actions. As you descend, turn left towards the top of Lake Pukaki, a heading of 196 degrees. You will see a runway in front of you - ignore it as this Glentanner airport, which we will not be landing at.

Once down to 4000 feet, report your position to the Unicom and make another right-hand turn to 336 degrees. Descend down to 3000 feet, and follow the valley floor until you have a visual on the runway. Lower you speed and flaps, and once in line with the strip, turn to 310 degrees and announce you are on finals. Your approach speed should be 80 kias.

This may be a tricky landing with the turbulence generated from the surrounding mountains, so take your time and be careful. A go-around is not a wise choice for a pilot with inexperience of flying in the area or little knowledge of the airport, because of the steep mountain faces all around you.

Touch down and retract the flaps. Exit the runway, taxi past the custom built small wooden terminal to the GA parking apron, and shut down your engines. Open the pilots door, step out of your door and have a good look up at the majestic Mount Cook towering above you!

Conclusions:

From here on, you might like to refly the flight with different settings. How about trying the Extra and do a bit of aerobatics above the mountains as you land in Tekapo? Or recreating the flight with stronger winds and a layer of clouds?