Visit West Coast Region with Mighway

Franz Josef Glacier Guides

Franz Josef Glacier Guides is an internationally recognized guiding operation that prides itself on providing the most incredible glacier experiences. They make a clear commitment that this trip will be the most spectacular and rewarding available. Walking on an enthralling world of ice on the glacier with an experienced guide is a once a lifetime opportunity.

They have a range of trips to suit every ability, from the gentle Glacier Valley Walk to the on-ice glacier hikes accessing the glacier by helicopter, the Ice Explorer and the Glacier Heli Hike.

Westland Tai Poutini National Park

It is a place of dramatic contrasts with snow-capped mountains, steep forested slopes, glaciers and impassible gorges to the east of the fault and forested lowlands, lakes, wetlands and wide river mouths to the west.

The area is best known for the Franz Josef & Fox Glaciers where you can walk up the river valleys to see the terminal faces or take a guided trip onto the ice. Westland National Park is the backbone of Glacier Country and is part of the South West New Zealand UNESCO World Heritage Area.

Kahurangi National Park

In places it is an untracked wilderness, elsewhere a wonderful network of tracks lets you explore wild rivers, high plateaux and alpine herbfields, and coastal forests. Translated, its name has a number of meanings including 'treasured possession', an apt description of its wonderfully diverse natural and recreational values.

Kahurangi is a geologically complex area. Much of its rock is sedimentary, laid down in an ancient sea, then faulted, uplifted and scoured, in places, by glaciers. Parts of the region are limestone or marble, these areas are characterised by an abundance of caves, bluffs, natural arches, sinkholes and water-worn outcrops. New Zealand's oldest fossil (540 million years old) was found in the park.

Kuhurangi National Park was a location for Dimrill Dale and the outcrop south of Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Fox Glacier

Fed by four alpine glaciers, Fox Glacier / Te Moeka o Tuawe is longer and faster moving than the Franz Josef Glacier / Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere. Its terminal face is just five kilometres from the village.

Fox Glacier is the name of both the glacier and the nearby village though the Maori names are different. Fox Glacier Weheka village, set into the forested foothills of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana with farmland close by, is more intimate than its bigger neighbour up the road.

There are plenty of options for activities close to the village including a number of ways to experience the glacier, quiet walks and beachcombing, or serious adrenalin pumping adventures.

At night you can walk along a bush path to a fern grotto to see glow worms on show.

Fox Glacier village is 3.5 hours drive from Wanaka, just under 2 hours from Hokitika and 25 minutes from Franz Josef village.