Franz Josef

Why Franz Josef is worth the trip

Very few places put a glacier and a rainforest in the same view. Franz Josef Glacier — Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere — descends from the Southern Alps into a valley of tree ferns and rātā at around three hundred metres above the sea, close enough to the coast that the ice and the palms are twenty minutes apart. That is the reason this village exists.

The rainfall is the mechanism and the character. 5,555 mm falls here in an average year — five and a half metres, several times what most of Britain gets — because the Alps stand across a wet westerly and wring it out. The same water that makes the forest so absurdly green is what feeds the glacier, and it is why any plan you make here is provisional.

One thing to know before you book anything: the glacier has retreated and the valley walk no longer reaches it. The walk ends about three kilometres from the ice, across a wide river flat, and the only guided access onto the glacier itself is by helicopter. A good deal of what is published about this still describes an earlier valley — there is more on that in the myths below, and the position is worth checking on the morning you go rather than in advance.

What remains is still worth the drive. A rainforest valley with an ice sheet at the head of it, a village where every second shopfront sells a flight, and a coastline twenty minutes away with kiwi in the bush behind it.

Understanding Franz Josef: the areas that matter

There are only four places to know, and three of them are on the same road. The village is where you sleep; the valley is why you came; the coast is the half-day nobody plans and everybody remembers; and Fox, thirty minutes south, is the other glacier. Stay in Franz Josef unless you have a particular reason not to. It sits in the middle of the string, so everything on this page is within about half an hour of it — where from Fox, the lagoons and the heron colony are nearer an hour each way.

• The village

  One street, perhaps ten minutes end to end, and almost entirely accommodation, food and helicopter offices. It is not charming and does not try to be. It is a base, and it is the only one.

  Best for

  Sleeping, eating, and booking the flight you will rebook twice

  As a base

  Where you stay. There is no alternative within half an hour

  Reason to add

  The wildlife centre, and the hot pools when it is raining

• The glacier valley

  A short drive from the village, then a walk up a wide, grey, boulder-strewn river flat between rock walls, with the ice at the far end of it. Signposted, well made and free.

  Best for

  The scale of the valley, which photographs badly and stands up well

  As a base

  No accommodation. Day access only

  Reason to add

  It is the reason the village is here. Go even on a poor day

• The coast and the lagoons

  Twenty to forty minutes north-west: Lake Mapourika on the highway, and Ōkārito, a tiny settlement on a tidal lagoon with rainforest behind it and the Alps across the water on a clear morning.

  Best for

  Kayaking, birds, and the view of the Alps from sea level

  As a base

  Ōkārito has a little accommodation and no services to speak of

  Reason to add

  The half-day that rescues a washed-out flight booking

• Fox Glacier, thirty minutes south

  The other glacier township — smaller, quieter, about three hundred people — with its own walkway towards the ice and Lake Matheson five kilometres beyond it. Most people come for half a day and sleep at Franz Josef.

  Best for

  Lake Matheson's reflection, the South Side walkway, and a calmer street

  As a base

  Only if Fox's own sights are the trip. It is an hour from the lagoons

  Reason to add

  Half a day, easily. Check its own access status before going

Start planning: four decisions

1. How many nights. One night is a gamble: if the cloud is down, you will have driven a long way to see a river flat. Two nights gives the weather a second chance at your flight, which is the single most useful thing you can buy here. Three is comfortable and lets you take the coast slowly. See the best time to visit New Zealand.
2. Whether to fly. The ice is only reachable by helicopter, so this is not a question of luxury but of whether you want to touch a glacier at all. It is expensive and it is cancelled often. Book it for your first morning, not your last, so a cancellation has somewhere to go. See what New Zealand costs.
3. Where to base yourself. Franz Josef, in almost every case. It has more operators, more beds and more flights, and it sits in the middle of everything worth seeing here. Fox is quieter and has Lake Matheson beside it, but it is at the southern end of the string — base there only if Fox's own sights are the reason you came. Most people want one base and a half-day at the other. Check each village's walk access before committing, because they change independently. Our guide to where to stay in Franz Josef compares the village, the edge of the village, Fox Glacier and Ōkārito.
4. Which way you are travelling. There is one road. Arriving from the north through Hokitika and leaving south over the Haast Pass — or the reverse — makes the Coast a through-route rather than a there-and-back, and it is the difference between two long drives and one. See getting around New Zealand.

Places you don't want to miss

None of these is more than about thirty-five minutes from the village, which is the whole argument for stopping here rather than driving through. Two of them are ice, and the ice is the one thing on the list that the weather can take away from you.

Franz Josef Glacier

The reason the village is here. A free thirty-minute walk up the river flat reaches a viewpoint 3,000 metres from the ice; a heli-hike is the only way to stand on it. Expensive, often cancelled, and the thing people remember.

Fox Glacier

Thirty minutes south, and more reliably in view than Franz Josef, which sits high and often in cloud. The South Side walkway runs 6.4 kilometres return through rainforest to a viewpoint. Quieter at every hour of the day.

Lake Matheson

Thirty-five minutes south, past Fox, and a flat ninety-minute loop through rainforest to a viewing platform. On a still morning it returns Aoraki and Mount Tasman upside down. On any other, tea-coloured water and beautiful bush.

Ōkārito Lagoon

Twenty-nine kilometres north-west, and almost nobody goes. New Zealand's largest unmodified wetland, kayaked or walked, with rainforest behind it and the Alps across the water when the cloud lifts. The best answer to a cancelled flight.

West Coast Wildlife Centre

In the village, and the reliable indoor hour when the rain sets in. A conservation centre for the rowi, the rarest kiwi in the world, with a nocturnal house — one of the few places you will see one awake.

The white herons at Whataroa

Twenty-two minutes north. The country's only breeding colony of kōtuku (the white heron), in a reserve reached only by guided tour (minivan and 800-metre bush walk). Mid-September to early March only.

Where to eat in Franz Josef

Franz Josef is a village, and it eats early. The places to eat are on the main road and on Cron Street behind it, a few minutes’ walk from most beds. The kitchens we checked stop serving dinner between eight and half past eight, so come down off the glacier and go straight to dinner.

The West Coast’s own tastes are whitebait, crayfish and venison. The region’s visitor site names all three. We have not eaten in Franz Josef, so the table says what each place is and when it opens, not how it tastes.

Other places to find for yourself. The table lists three places in Franz Josef and two in Fox Glacier. Both townships have more. We could not confirm their details from their own websites, so we have not named them. One well-known brewery restaurant says on its own site that it has closed. The village is one street and the one behind it, so walk both and look at the menus before you choose. In Whataroa we confirmed nowhere to eat: ask your host. The village has a supermarket if you are cooking for yourself.

For where to sleep, see where to stay in Franz Josef.

Getting there and around

There is one road in and one road out, and they are the same road. State Highway 6 runs the length of the West Coast: north to Hokitika, Greymouth and eventually the Buller, south to Fox, the Haast Pass and Wānaka. Franz Josef sits on it, and so does everything else here except the glacier valley itself.

The approaches are the planning decision. From Christchurch the usual way is over Arthur's Pass to the Coast and then south; from Queenstown and Wānaka it is north over the Haast. Going in one way and out the other turns the Coast into a through-route. Doubling back doubles the driving, and these are long, winding, single-carriageway hours, not motorway ones.

There is no public transport worth planning around beyond the tourist coaches that run the Coast route, and no rail. A car or campervan is effectively required, and fuel should be taken where you find it rather than where you expect it.

A few myths (and realities)