Heli-skiing in Southern Alps

Blade runner: A helicopter over Lake Wakatipu.

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In the rarefied air of the Southern Alps, Craig Tansley visits an exclusive lodge where skiers get around in helicopters.

It occurs to me - some time between my last mouthful of Spanish omelet (with extra chorizo) and the 30-second walk to the helicopter waiting for me on the front lawn - that I may never ride a chairlift again. Or wait in a chairlift line. Or wait in a line to buy a chairlift pass in the first place. Or try to find a space during school holidays in the car park of a ski resort.

For here, within the privileged confines of one of the world's finest alpine lodges, I'm about to be flown to the empty, snow-covered mountains of New Zealand's Southern Alps.

At Blanket Bay Lodge - with its grand rooms of schist rock, hardwood timber and roaring fireplaces - everything comes to you: helicopters on the front lawn, jet boats on the glacier-fed lake that borders the property, dinners of five courses prepared by the country's top chefs and enough complimentary cocktails, brandies, liquors, champagne and local pinot noirs to dull the pain that invariably comes with any ski experience.

I'd flown in on a direct flight to Queenstown the morning before. Picked up by limousine, I'm whisked through the bustling ski town and taken for 45 minutes towards the township of Glenorchy along what is regarded as one of the world's most picturesque roadways, built only metres above Lake Wakatipu.

We turn off the main road into a private property of 22 hectares framed by glaciers, mountains on all sides and bordered by a 26,000-hectare working sheep station (bought by the owners of the lodge to ensure maximum privacy).

My ski gear is deposited in my 215-square-metre suite, one of 13 rooms and suites, and I'm deposited on a couch in the Great Room in front of a large rock fireplace.

I've arrived in Blanket Bay and it had taken barely four hours, yet I'm in a landscape so different from my inner-city Melbourne suburb I might have flown 20 hours to Alaska.

Built on the edge of the World Heritage-listed Mount Aspiring National Park, Blanket Bay is so private the silence can drive guests slightly batty. A New York executive once requested that a generator be turned on outside his suite during the night while he slept. During my weekend here, the only time silence is interrupted is when skydivers landing in a nearby field scream in delight - I forgive them for their trespass - oh, and, of course, when my helicopter lands on my private lawn to take me skiing.

Blanket Bay's clientele has included Bill Gates and Robin Williams, although coaxing information from tight-lipped staff about who has stayed is an exercise in futility. (Rumours abound that ''Brangelina'' were among the privileged few.)

One celebrity unafraid to go on record is Gandalf - namely, Sir Ian McKellen, who stayed here when The Lord of the Rings was filmed down the road.

He called Blanket Bay ''possibly the best property in the world''. But for such a decorated property, I fail to detect an air of pretension.

Oddly, for such a romantic setting, it seems Blanket Bay is geared for adventure. One day I'm taken on narrow dirt roads below rocky passes through Mount Aspiring National Park by a fifth-generation local, the next I'm skimming over rocks along a shallow river on a jet boat.

Then there's the heli-skiing. There are more than 400 runs to choose from, spread across seven mountain ranges covering more than 3000 square kilometres.

But the best part, for me, is that they'll land on your lawn. There's a thrill in finishing off your breakfast and downing your latte just in time to see your helicopter touch down. Surely even Bill Gates still gets excited by that.

After a short safety briefing, we lift off from the lodge. We can see the peaks and wild terrain of Mount Aspiring National Park as we travel for 15 minutes to the north Buchanan mountain range. Our guide scans the landscape for the best runs, motions to the pilot and we touch down on a ridge barely wide enough to fit the helicopter.

He plants a red flag in the ground (it's ''the first time we've skied here all season,'' he says) and we carve a path down 1000 metres through soft, dry, shin-deep snow, never once crossing over another's track.

There's neither a cloud in the sky all day, nor another person out here except for our group.

We ski seven perfect runs, stopping for a long lunch in a quiet, snow-filled valley beside a frozen creek before we return home over the Alps, banking hard left when we come to Lake Wakatipu to land on ''my'' front lawn.

It certainly costs a lot more than the average ski holiday but in that moment, as I walk to my lodge bathed in afternoon light and framed by Middle-earth, as staff take my ski gear and escort me to the Great Room to warm up in front of the schist-rock fireplace and I choose between seared monkfish fillet and chargrilled Canter Valley quail, I could be Bill Gates himself. Although, of course, the staff won't confirm this for me.

Staying there

Two nights in a Blanket Bay suite with pre-dinner drinks, dinner, breakfast and a full day's heli-skiing with Harris Mountains Heli-Ski costs $NZ4806.25 ($3936) a person, twin share. For two couples, the cost is $3081.25 a person. Phone +64 3441 0115, see www.blanketbay.com.

Craig Tansley travelled courtesy of Blanket Bay and Air New Zealand.

- © Fairfax NZ News