Fox Glacier
Fox Glacier — Te Moeka o Tuawe — is at Fox, not at Franz Josef. The village is twenty-three kilometres south down the highway, about half an hour, and the glacier sits roughly six kilometres up its own valley behind it. That matters more than it sounds, because the two glaciers are half an hour apart and their access arrangements have nothing to do with each other. What is open at one tells you nothing about the other.
Fox is the longer of the pair at thirteen kilometres, and getting to a view of it is a proper walk rather than a stroll: the South Side Walkway is about two hours return through rainforest, and it ends at a viewpoint the daily access update puts 2,600 metres from the terminal face. There is no road up the valley any more, and there will not be one again. Understanding why is most of what you need to know before you go.
Last updated 30 August 2026
Why it matters
On 22 February 2019 a landslide blocked the road up the Fox valley, and heavy rain the following month made it worse. The road had been the ordinary way in for decades. It has never reopened, and the decision not to reopen it was deliberate and expensive to make.
Engineers found, as RNZ reported that August, that "there was no practical solution to stem the flow of the landslide and enable road access to be re-established". DOC's Wayne Costello put the bill for reinstating foot and vehicle access at around $16 million, with no guarantee heavy rain would not undo it again — and the department had already spent $1.5 million on that road and its facilities in the twelve months before the slip. Instead the government put $3.9 million into walking and cycling access and new attractions on the south side of the river.
So the walkway you use today is not a temporary arrangement or a make-do. It is the replacement, deliberately chosen and paid for. That is worth knowing because the alternative story — a tourist village cut off and dying — was widely told at the time and did not come true. The walkway is busy, well graded and well reviewed. What actually happened is that a place stopped pretending it could keep a road in a landslide zone, and built something that does not need one.
What it's like
The track follows the south bank of the Fox River through what DOC calls ancient podocarp rainforest, and for the first stretch there is no glacier at all — just tall wet forest, the river somewhere below on the right, and a gradient so gentle you stop noticing it. It climbs across old glacial moraine, which is to say across ground the glacier itself dumped here and then walked away from. About forty minutes in, the first viewpoint arrives. Ten more minutes downhill through the trees brings you to the second.
The valley when it opens is greyer and rawer than the forest suggests — a wide floor of rock flour and braided water, walls stripped bare to a clear height, and the ice at the head of it. Fox reads more like a river of ice than Franz Josef does, partly because you have walked up the valley rather than driven to a lookout at the mouth of it, and partly because it is longer and you can see more of its length.
How to visit
Two published sources disagree about how close you get, and the dated one wins. DOC's track page says the glacier viewpoints are "hundreds of metres from the face of the glacier". The Glacier Country daily access update — republished every morning with a time stamp — puts the viewpoint 2,600 metres from the terminal face, and had the walk open and in good condition at 08:15 on 30 August 2026. Read the update on the morning you go. Nothing else about this valley, including this page, is as current.
Do not go past the final viewpoint. DOC's wording is "do not go past this point due to extreme flood hazard". Glacial rivers can be dammed by ice falls and burst, and downpours flood the valley floor within minutes.
Getting to the start. Fox Glacier village is 23 km south of Franz Josef on State Highway 6, about half an hour. From the village it is less than 6 km to the valley. Drive or cycle to the old car park at the end of the road; bikes must be left there and the rest is on foot.
The walk. The South Side Walkway is graded Easy by DOC and takes about two hours return, with the first viewpoint at roughly forty minutes and a second about ten minutes further down. DOC's own range is one to four hours depending on how far you go and how long you stand there. It is free and needs no booking. Take a rain jacket; this is the West Coast and the forest holds water long after the sky has stopped.
Onto the ice. Helicopter only — there is no walking route onto Fox Glacier from the valley floor. Fox Glacier Guiding run a Flying Fox heli-hike with up to three hours on the ice and an all-day Extreme Fox with up to seven, and provide all the equipment. They do not publish prices on their website, so you have to ask; for scale, the equivalent trip at Franz Josef is advertised at NZ$795.
Making the most of it
Take a bike to the old car park. The first section is a cycleway and riding it turns a two-hour round trip into something closer to ninety minutes, with the effort spent on the part that is worth walking. Bikes are not allowed beyond the old car park, which is the point at which the interesting forest starts anyway.
Give it the morning. The walk is long enough that arriving at three o'clock in changeable weather is a poor plan, and the light in the valley is better early. It is also when the track is quietest — most people are still doing Lake Matheson.
Pair it with Lake Matheson, not with Franz Josef. Two glacier valleys in a day is one too many; the ice starts to blur. Matheson is ten minutes from Fox village, takes about ninety minutes, and answers a completely different question about the same mountains.
Do not treat Fox as a lay-by. The village is small — a few hundred people, five or so places to eat, a general store — but it has around sixteen places to stay and a genuine cluster of walks: the Moraine Walk, the Minnehaha glowworm loop, Te Weheka cycleway, Lake Gault, Mount Fox for the fit. If Fox's side of the region is what you came for, staying here is reasonable. For most people Franz Josef is still the better base, because it has the beds, the food and the road position.
Nearby
Lake Matheson is ten minutes west of Fox village and is the mirror-lake view of Aoraki and Tasman that everyone has seen a photograph of. Gillespies Beach is twenty kilometres further west, with the last stretch unsealed, and gives you the coast, a seal colony and a long grey shingle horizon.
Half an hour north, Franz Josef / Waiau is where most people sleep, and its own glacier is a very different visit— thirty minutes on foot to a distant viewpoint rather than two hours to a nearer one. Beyond it, Ōkārito Lagoon and the white heron colony at Whataroa are both inside a day from there, which is the argument for basing at Franz Josef and coming to Fox for the day rather than the other way round.
A final word on Fox Glacier
Fox asks more of you than Franz Josef does and gives back something better proportioned. Two hours through podocarp forest and over old moraine, and then a valley that explains itself: the ridge you walked over is where the ice was, the white at the head of it is where the ice is, and the gap between them is measured in your own footsteps. Cycle the first part, go in the morning, and read the dated update before you leave the village — not the guidebook, and not this page.
Andrew + Margaret
- Franz Josef / Waiau Overview
- Visiting New Zealand Overview
- The South Island itinerary Journeys
- Getting around New Zealand Practical
- What New Zealand costs Practical
Can you drive to Fox Glacier?
You can drive to the start of the walk, but not up the valley. A landslide blocked the access road on 22 February 2019 and heavy rain that March made it worse; engineers found no practical way to reopen it, DOC costed reinstatement at around $16 million with no guarantee, and $3.9 million went into walking and cycling access instead. Drive or cycle to the old car park, leave the bike there, and walk from that point.
How long is the Fox Glacier South Side Walkway?
About two hours return, graded Easy by DOC, with the first viewpoint at roughly forty minutes and a second about ten minutes beyond it. DOC gives a range of one to four hours depending on how far you go. The first section is a cycleway as far as the old car park; after that it is on foot.
How close does the walk get to the ice?
The Glacier Country daily access update — dated and republished each morning — puts the viewpoint 2,600 metres from the terminal face. DOC's track page still describes the viewpoints as "hundreds of metres" from the face, which no longer matches. Trust the dated update, and read it on the morning you go rather than relying on any page written earlier.
Can you walk on Fox Glacier?
Only by helicopter. There is no route onto the ice from the valley floor. Fox Glacier Guiding run a heli-hike with up to three hours on the ice and an all-day version with up to seven, with equipment provided. They do not publish prices online, so you need to contact them; the comparable trip at Franz Josef is advertised at NZ$795.
Fox or Franz Josef — which glacier should I visit?
They are half an hour apart and their access positions are different and change independently, so check both on the day. Franz Josef's walk is thirty minutes return to a viewpoint about three kilometres from the face; Fox's is two hours return to one about 2,600 metres out. If you want a short look, go to Franz Josef. If you want a walk that earns the view, go to Fox. If you have a clear morning and only one of them, ask locally which is out of cloud.