Just over three decades of flying tourists over some of the most spectacular scenery in New Zealand has come to an end for seasoned helicopter business owners, Jeff and Natalie Shanks.

The ownership of Milford Helicopters, a helicopter service based at Milford Sound and started by the Shanks' in 1988, changed hands in April bringing to an end their involvement in the small independent operation.

The Te Anau based couple said they were pleased to see the baton passed on to another local based operator, Te Anau Helicopter Services, owned by Gaven and Jennie Burgess.

Mr and Mrs Shanks said that during their time involved with Milford Sound they had witnessed many changes with how the region was managed by organisations like Department of Conservation (DOC), Transit New Zealand/New Zealand Transport Agency and the collective of tourist operators based at Milford Sound.

They also recalled significant events over their 32 years such as the time in January 1994 when a huge landslide came down onto state highway 94 Milford Road, causing the road to be closed for two weeks at the peak of the tourist season, drawing parallels with flooding earlier this year in February which again caused the area to be cut off at the peak of the season.

At that time Mr Shanks, who was main pilot for the company, the said the destination was completely shut off and tourist boats could only operate when the weather was good enough for flights from Queenstown, Te Anau and Wanaka to land at Milford Sound bringing much needed passengers and supplies. He managed to convince other helicopter operators in the local area to start an air-lift transfer of road users over the landslip area, which meant just a five minute flight and opened the fiord up to being fully operational again without interfering with the road recovery work. At that time he said it was much easier to make those sorts of decisions, whereas today health and safety rules make it much more difficult and expensive to just swing into action like that.

The sale of the business didn’t include the three helicopters owned by the company – a Hughes 500 and two Airbus AS350’s (Écureuil) – and when asked what they would do with them Mr Shanks asked “do you want to buy them?”. However, for Mr Shanks, stopping flying isn’t immediately on the cards. Although he lost his commercial flying health clearance in 2016 after a heart operation, he intends to continue flying his Hughes 500 for private flying while for Mrs Shanks more time with the grandchildren is her retirement plan.

The new owners are Gaven and Jennie Burgess who are both commercial pilots, Mr Burgess flies helicopters while Mrs Burgess is rated for fixed wing aircraft, and they live in Te Anau with their family. 

The couple have been building their helicopter business,Te Anau Helicopter Service, since 2014 when, after years of flying for other companies, they took the leap to go out on their own.

Mr Burgess said it had been a hard slog with lots of tough times along the way.

They purchased the Milford Helicopters business name and associated concessions to operate. 

Mr Burgess said Milford Helicopters would continue to operate under its own brand but under the management of Te Anau Helicopter Services. This is the third helicopter operation to come under their management after launching Bluff-based Stewart Island Helicopters earlier this year, after operating in that region for the past four or five years. 

Te Anau Helicopter Services now has a combined fleet of eight commercial aircraft in the southern region.

Mr Burgess gave credit to Mr and Mrs Shanks, whom he referred toas really good to deal, with and respected their 30 odd years operating at Milford Sound.

He also acknowledged his “terrific team” of pilots, ground crew and administrators as without their efforts he said, the business simply couldn’t operate. 

Mr and Mrs Burgess have confidence in the future despite the current circumstances of the COVID-19 restrictions and the accompanying downturn in tourism, and they are quietly optimistic about tourist numbers coming back especially in areas like Stewart Island where interest is growing from both New Zealand and Australian visitors.

However, he said, their business wasn’t wholly dependent on tourists and their commercial business was one of their main strengths, particularly in Fiordland Nation Park.

“It’s a very special place (to work) but very limited without the appropriate concessions, and they’re (DOC) not issuing any more,” he said.

A big part of their commercial work is in the fields of conservation and Tuberculosis testing.  

They have some great clients, and in the last six years their work has taken them regularly to very special places such as the Auckland Islands, Resolution Island and Secretary Island.

He said they were very excited to be now working out of Milford Sound, and the purchase of Milford Helicopters brought greater security to their operations. He said they were now hopefully well positioned to ride out this current situation.