The bait will be dropped at the rate 1kg-2kg from the floors to the tops of eight valleys - the east and west Matukituki, Cameron, Young, Blue, Makarora, Siberia and Wilkin.
The poisoning programme being run across large tracts of the North and South Islands is designed to kill rats, mice, stoats and possums that prey on native birds such as mohua, kaka, whio, and kea.
In the Wanaka area, the Department of Conservation is planning to operate helicopters from two loading sites - one in the Makarora area and the other in the Matukituki.
Conservation services manager in Wanaka Chris Sydney told the Otago Daily Times the timing for the drop was weather-dependent.
''Because we have two operations, basically we need to have weather windows of several days of fine weather before we start, so we can't pick a date.''
The availability of helicopters was another factor in deciding when to carry out the two operations.
Each operation required helicopters to carry out a ''pre-feed'' drop of bait only, followed a few days later with a drop of poisoned bait.
What type of helicopter and how many would be used depended on which company was contracted, Mr Sydney said.
Doc staff from around the southern region would be brought in to help clear tracks of poison bait.
Mr Sydney said notices about the programme would be put on tracks shortly, and tracks would be closed on the day of each drop.
Doc would also email a long list of people and organisations 24 hours before the operation starting.
Mr Sydney said trials to treat bait so it was unpalatable to kea had not been successful.
''So it's not going to be used. It's not effective.''
Bait will not be dropped in specific waterways, higher alpine tussock areas, areas next to pastoral lease and freehold land, or around huts and campsites.
