Heli Cruise Island Escape

Heli Cruise Island Escape

Want to experience the best of the Bay of Islands all within one day?

Our Heli Cruise Island Escape package allows you to experience a boat cruise between Paihia and the islands, with island beach stops and an incredibly scenic helicopter flight from the islands back to Paihia.

***CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE FOR THE 21-22 SUMMER SEASON, PLEASE SEE OUR CRUISE AND HELI COMBO DEAL INSTEAD***

The Ultimate Adventure of Sea, Land and Flight – NZ$349pp

Experience the Bay of Islands with our spectacular Heli Cruise Island Escape.

Duration: approx 4 hours

Departs: 10am

Available Oct to April

Depart Paihia at 10.00am on the Sea Shuttle boat for a relaxing cruise taking you on an informative tour of the Islands, your first stop will be at Roberton Island to walk to the lookout and enjoy some morning tea

You will continue cruising to the islands where the skipper will select another island beach to visit. You can relax at your leisure or do island activities such as walking tracks, swimming, snorkelling. Bring your own packed lunch to have here.

After the island visits, the Sea Shuttle will transfer you to our custom built Helicopter Barge in the heart of the Islands at Otehei Bay. The helicopter will pick you up at approx 2pm.

Depart on a stunning 15-minute scenic helicopter flight to the Hole in the Rock and back over the islands before landing in Paihia

Minimum Number for booking is 2 people, we can try and accommodate single passengers on request

What to Bring: Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear for a beach visit, hats, sunscreen, swimwear/towels for swimming. Your own lunch and drinks, morning tea is provided. Snorkelling equipment is available if you don’t have your own

Tripadvisor Reviews

We regularly receive great reviews of this tour on our Tripadvisor page. Some recent comments include:

Truly a 5* experience. A must do! We felt extremely comfortable during the whole tour as Caity and Adam were extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and warm. We learnt new things such as paddle boarding and eating a sea urchin (see our pics below) – if it wasn’t for Caity and Adam’s encouragement we would have never bothered to give it a try. All equipment for paddle boarding and snorkelling is free including the host’s help. Caity and Adam also took pictures of us from the day and were kind enough to email them to us after the tour. All in all they made our day, and I would highly recommend them to you. Not like I need to mention – the helicopter ride was the cherry on top!

Bay of Islands boat & helicopter tour. Overall this activity was the highlight of our stay in the Bay of Islands and our “private island” is one of the first things we talk about when we tell people about our trip to NZ. I’d definitely recommend doing this instead of just a boat or helicopter tour on its own – the views were amazing and having a whole little island to explore on your own was something special. The team at Salt Air were very nice and friendly and very helpful & well organised. They also even helped when we wanted to get a high-resolution photo of the island we visited to get printed out.

Fabulous Day Out. We did the heli cruise which I thought was great value for money. The first part had us taken by motor boat around the Bay of Islands being dropped off at 2 islands to explore. We then we taken out to the helicopter landing pad which is on a raft in the middle of one of the bays and flown back to Paihia after a scenic flight around the Bay. A great experience and highly recommended.

Unforgettable, start to finish. We did the heli island escape and it was the best money we spent on our honeymoon. The helicopter ride was a great way to see the Bay of Islands and we were dropped at a beautiful and secluded area with provisions for a thoroughly pleasant afternoon. What really sets Salt Air apart though, is the staff. They were friendly, obliging and knowledgeable and they really made us feel special.