{"id":27579,"date":"2013-09-15T08:35:06","date_gmt":"2013-09-14T22:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/?p=27579"},"modified":"2018-05-14T09:40:41","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T23:40:41","slug":"nt-from-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/nt-from-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"NT from the Air"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>It\u2019s eight in the morning, 34 degrees and I&#8217;m about to make a 200 km journey to Kings Canyon. To say that I\u2019m nervous would be putting it mildly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The butterflies in my stomach start to flutter as Tara our tour guide and pilot for the day picks us up from the hotel.<br \/>\nThis isn\u2019t just any flight, today I\u2019m going on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phs.com.au\/scenic_ar.html?cid=lmau_blog_post\">Professional Helicopter Services<\/a> Kings Canyon Air Safari.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/nt-from-the-air\/1-14\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27580\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27580 size-full\" title=\" \" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/last-minute\/blog\/uploads\/2013\/09\/119-e1423019902195.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My nervous excitement reaches fever pitch as I step onto the airport tarmac and into the front seat of the four seater helicopter. With wrap around windows I can see the clouds above and soon enough the red desert whooshing by underfoot.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/nt-from-the-air\/2-10\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27581\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27581 size-full\" title=\" \" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/last-minute\/blog\/uploads\/2013\/09\/210.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"500\" height=\"514\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Up in the air you can really see the remoteness of the area. There isn\u2019t a single house our building, only stretches of endless road criss-crossing the bare desert.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_27582\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/nt-from-the-air\/3-9\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27582\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27582\" class=\"wp-image-27582 size-full\" title=\"Pilot Tara flying over the great salt lakes of Lake Amadeus\" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/last-minute\/blog\/uploads\/2013\/09\/38.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"651\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-27582\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pilot Tara flying over the great salt lakes of Lake Amadeus<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Forty minutes later we arrive at Kings Canyon, circling over the top I\u2019m in awe of the beauty and uniqueness of the site.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/nt-from-the-air\/4-7\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27583\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27583 size-full\" title=\" \" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/last-minute\/blog\/uploads\/2013\/09\/46.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A gentle landing, and a few minutes later we are walking alongside the dry creek bed through the canyon.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/nt-from-the-air\/5-6\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27584\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27584 size-full\" title=\" \" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/last-minute\/blog\/uploads\/2013\/09\/55.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"500\" height=\"559\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We pass only a handful of other tourists along our walk. Besides the occasional friendly greeting the canyon is filled with the sounds of cracking bark under our footsteps, birds whistling in the distance and the flies buzzing around us. It\u2019s the exact opposite (and a very welcome rest) from everything I\u2019m used to in Sydney.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_27585\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/nt-from-the-air\/6-7\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27585\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27585\" class=\"wp-image-27585 size-full\" title=\"The stunning Kings Canyon\" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/last-minute\/blog\/uploads\/2013\/09\/67.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"279\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-27585\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stunning Kings Canyon<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Soon enough it\u2019s time for the return journey back to Uluru. As we fly over endless sand dunes dotted with spinifex grass and desert oak trees it feels as though I\u2019m looking at a living dot-painting.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/nt-from-the-air\/7-4\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27586\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27586 size-full\" title=\" \" src=\"https:\/\/images.trvl-media.com\/media\/content\/expaus\/images\/last-minute\/blog\/uploads\/2013\/09\/73.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"500\" height=\"564\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Watch a video of the experience here:<br \/>\n[videojs mp4=&#8221;https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/dms\/site\/liveeverylastminute\/air_safari3\/air_safari3.mp4&#8243; class=&#8221;aligncenter&#8221; width=&#8221;500&#8243;]<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><em><strong>Red hot tip:<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/accommodation\/australia\/kings-canyon-resort\/W5078?cid=lmau_blog_post\">Stay a little longer<\/a> at the Canyon and do the rim walk at sunset for a beautiful view over the Territory.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><em>Music credit: <\/em><\/h5>\n<div>B-3 (<a href=\"http:\/\/freemusicarchive.org\/music\/BoxCat_Games\/?cid=lmau_blog_post\" rel=\"cc:attributionURL\">BoxCat Games<\/a>) \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/?cid=lmau_blog_post\" rel=\"license\">CC BY 3.0<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pageLinksCont\">\n<ul>\n<li class=\"pageLinks\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/accommodation\/australia\/nt-ayers-rock-uluru?cid=lmau_blog_post\">Hotels in Uluru (Ayers Rock)<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"pageLinks\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/domestic-flights\/cheap-airfares-to-ayers-rock?cid=lmau_blog_post\">Flights to Uluru (Ayers Rock)<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"pageLinks\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastminute.godo.com.au\/experience-flying-activities-in-nt?cid=lmau_blog_post\">Flying Experiences in NT<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s eight in the morning, 34 degrees and I&#8217;m about to make a 200 km journey to Kings Canyon. To..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":39095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[3660,3416,302,2379,3661,1284,3662,3663,134,1679,2389,3664,3570,2392,2393,2903],"acf":{"credits":[{"name":"","label":"","full_url":""}],"enable_review_score":false},"posts_api_cpm_point":{"name":"","description":"","thumbnail":"","address":"Uluru, Petermann NT 0872, Australia","latitude":"-25.3444277","longitude":"131.03688220000004","icon":"\/images\/icons\/marker.png"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27579"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39093,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27579\/revisions\/39093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}