Crocs, cold beers and a chopper: I took Australia's wildest weekend pub crawl

I am sitting beside the crocodile-infested Adelaide River, a cold beer in one hand while a man calling himself King Kai spins stories from the seat beside me. He's telling me about his "girlfriend", Casey, who is currently lurking just a few metres beneath the deck waiting for her morning snack.

Casey, of course, is a crocodile, and I've just landed on Goat Island to enjoy a beverage at Casey's Bar, only accessible by boat or helicopter.

This is just one stop on what can only be described as Australia's ultimate pub crawl.

Strapped into a Fire and Rescue helicopter that moonlights as a tourist chopper, three of my closest friends and I lifted off from Darwin for Airborne Solutions' 6.5-hour Heli Pub Crawl, hopping between some of the Northern Territory's most iconic watering holes.

Our pilot, Clancy McPherson, is a Crocs-wearing aviation enthusiast who grew up on a macadamia farm near Bundaberg before moving north, where he dreams of a career in aerial firefighting.

"Pretty addictive," is how he describes flying across the vast horizons of the Northern Territory. It doesn't take long to understand exactly what he means.

When they say everything is bigger in the NT, they aren't exaggerating. Leaving Darwin behind, we followed the coastline over turquoise waters and white sand beaches to a little place called Dundee. The enticing waters are one of the mysteries of this northern part of Australia. How could something so dazzling, be so treacherous? As we scoot above islands and along waterways Clancy casually points out crocodiles cruising through estuaries beneath us before banking the helicopter for a closer look.

Between the endless landscape, the heavy drone of the helicopter and the novelty of seeing the Territory from above, it was easy to forget the purpose of the day. We were here to visit some remote pubs!

First stop was The Lodge of Dundee where we landed in a nearby field and sauntered into the local watering hole for our first schooner of the day - a locally made lager that perfectly matched the breezy openness of this tavern. We spotted a couple of wallabies and admired the view before climbing back into our luxurious 'Uber' for the day. When I say luxury, I mean the views and the sheer ease of flitting between destinations. The actual helicopter is a bit squishy and quite humid, two small inconveniences that become less notable as the day and the schooners go on.

Next was Crab Claw Island Resort and this one should be on the bucket list. It feels like landing in the Cook Islands.

A small rural red-dirt runway opens up amongst the trees and we hover down below, before Clancy perfectly does what I can only describe as a parallel park. A ute awaits to take us the small drive to the bar which is a treehouse-style open-air pub that sits right on the beach. Cold beer in hand, toes almost in the sand, it was the sort of place you could happily lose an afternoon.

But it was time to head inland and skirt just north of the Litchfield National Park for our lunch stop. We had been in the national park the day prior and had embraced the beauty of the bush, dipping in local rock pools and watering holes. Today we got to see it from a different perspective. One of my favourite moments was watching the helicopter's shadow scoot along the bushland beneath us, only looking away from the window to share grins with my group of friends who were all equally having a moment of gratitude for the day we were experiencing together.

We stopped in at the Darwin River Tavern for lunch. This is a quintessential NT stop. There was an entire field for dedicated helicopter parking, emus pranced along the fence line, a turtle resided in the former indoor croc pond.

Renewed from lunch, we took off for Goat Island and what all of us agreed was the top spot of the day.

The privately-owned island sits in the middle of the crocodile-infested Adelaide River. Self-proclaimed king of the island is publican and lodge owner Kai Hansen. The Danish expat makes no secret of the fact his island runs by its own rules. A sign at the entrance declares Goat Island a "politically incorrect zone" and, on the day we visited, joked about "random body searches on young ladies"- amusing, given our helicopter happened to be carrying four young-ish women. If you're prepared to embrace Kai's irreverent humour and larger-than-life storytelling, you'll have a memorable afternoon.

"Denmark has now got an Australian queen, and here in the NT you've got a Danish king," he cackled as he welcomed us onto his island.

Sitting in what is basically Kai's house, watching his croc Casey patrol the river below, it's not hard to marvel at the life this wacky personality has built in one of Australia's most isolated pubs.

"It's unique, it's the only freehold island in all of the NT," he said.

"And you can't just come driving in here, because it's 24 kilometres to the nearest road. Boat or helicopter is the only way."

If you are wondering why Kai looks so familiar it might be because this publican went viral for "defending" himself from his "girlfriend" Casey - a real life crocodile that he feeds straight from the deck with a frying pan.

"You can still see the dents (in the frying pan) where I whacked her on the nose," he told us over a beer while brandishing the famous cooking item.

"That pretty girl lying down the front, her name is Casey, she was like all other young ladies, she just wanted my body. So I smacked her on the nose."

They hook you up with the rod, the bait and the dam plentiful with fish. Within minutes two of our group of four had hooked a catch, much to the dismay of the bloke nearby who had clearly been trying for some time. Measuring more than 50 centimetres the fish was photographed and tossed back, and before long all four of us managed a catch, although one member of the group may have benefited from a little strategic assistance from the chum bucket. Whether you're a seasoned fisher or complete novice, it proved a surprisingly entertaining way to round out the day. With that, it was back on the helicopter to head home to Darwin and rejoin our former lives as pedestrian bar-hoppers rather than sky-high ones.

By the time we landed back in Darwin we'd travelled across beaches, estuaries, floodplains and bush, shared beers with Territory characters, caught barramundi and swapped stories with a man who feeds a crocodile from his back deck. The Heli Pub Crawl isn't an everyday splurge, but it delivers something increasingly rare in travel: a day that feels completely unlike anything else. And in the Northern Territory, that's saying something.

What: Airborne Solutions "The Original" Heli Pub Crawl: 5 Pubs

How much: From $1260 per person

Explore more: airbornesolutions.com.au/heli-pub-crawl/

The writer travelled at her own expense