A New Zealander living in South Africa hopes to set up a Queenstown business ferrying tourists on sightseeing trips to Glenorchy in a float plane.
Brent Collins, originally of Blenheim, has applied to the Queenstown Lakes District Council to operate a float plane on Lake Wakatipu and to construct a gangway and a floating pontoon at St Omers Wharf at Queenstown Bay.
Mr Collins is proposing to operate up to 16 return charter flights from Queenstown to Glenorchy daily in a seven-seater Dehavilland Beaver float plane.
Mr Collins volunteered public notification because consent from potential affected parties had not been "forthcoming".
Mr Collins' father Trevor told the Otago Daily Times his son was an agricultural pilot who had lived in South Africa for the past 10 years.
"He's keen to come back to New Zealand and he's very keen on the Dehavilland Beaver. It's an older type plane usually from the '60s. They are [worth] a lot of money, probably $NZ500,000," he said.
In his application, Mr Collins said he would lease St Omers Wharf from Ngai Tahu and construct a floating pontoon which would be secured to the jetty and the lake bed.
Passengers would get on the plane at the floating pontoon and taxi 1.6km along the lake to a 800m long runway 1.1km southwest of Queenstown Gardens.
The plane's route had been designed in consultation with the harbour master, Kawarau Jet, Real Journeys and Paraflights Queenstown, the application said.
The application said the pontoon would have no effect on the lake bed's ecosystems and would require minimal maintenance.
In the event of rough weather, the plane would land at Queenstown Airport.
The 40-minute flights to and from Glenorchy would run from 10am to 5pm in winter and 9am to 8pm in summer.
Mr Collins would run 12 flights per day Monday to Wednesday and 16 per day Thursday to Sunday and public holidays.
Mr Collins would also offer charter flights to Wanaka, Lake Hawea, Mt Aspiring National Park and the Routeburn.
The application said the small plane would not affect the openness of the lake or its nature conservation values.
However, it acknowledged the plane would create a "reasonable" level of noise.
Other possible locations for the pontoon had been the Kelvin Heights Yacht Club and the Frankton Marina.
A report by landscape planner Michael Steven, of Vivian Espie, said the proposed structure was simple and functional.
It would add to an "interesting, exciting and vibrant" waterfront and add dimension to aquatic activities, he said in the report.
Existing trees would render the structure largely invisible, he said.
