Things To Do In New Zealand: Fox Glacier

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What: Fox Glacier / Te Moeka o Tuawe.

Where: Westland Tai Poutini National Park, West Coast of South Island, NZ

A fascinating attraction of the South Island of New Zealand is the 13km long glacier ‘Fox Glacier’. It is known locally as Te Moeka o Tuawe which means ‘The bed of Tuawe’. The glacier descends 2,600m from the Southern alps towards the coast, finishing near a rainforest 300m above sea level.

Glaciers are large, slow-moving accumulations of ice, snow and rock which change according to the seasons. Fox Glacier has been retreating for the last 100 years, but in 1985 it began to advance about a meter a week. In 2009 the terminal face of the glacier collapsed, and since then there has been significant retreat.

The glacier forms the Fox River, and during the last ice age, it reached beyond the present coastline, forming lakes such as Kettle Lake.

It’s a very popular tourist destination with visitors able to hike parts of the glacier with crampons and ice picks, or tour at height in a helicopter. Hikers can navigate deep crevasses, ice caves and towering ice-blue pinnacles.