It can take almost an hour if you take your time and enjoy the surroundings. The walk from the carpark to the face of the Franz Josef Glacier is beautiful – but quite long. The smallest glaciers have lost about 12 metres of thickness in that time. Since 1977, the Southern Alps of New Zealand have lost 34 per cent of their ice and snow cover. They’re convinced that human-caused climate change is the major cause. Some of it is natural and these ice formations always grow and shrink a bit over time depending on the weather conditions of each year.īut the acceleration of the decline in size is increasing and scientists don’t think it has ever been as fast as it has been in recently.
#Franz josef glacier tour full#
While the Fox Glacier valley has mainly grey rocks and a rounder shape, the Franz Josef Glacier valley is full of orange rocks, has more plants, and is steeper on the sides.įranz Josef Glacier is also receding – all of the glaciers here in New Zealand are. Only a 30 minute drive from Fox Glacier is Franz Josef Glacier and it really is worth seeing them both.īoth are rivers of ice, fair enough, but the valleys you walk along to reach the glaciers are different and have their own unique characteristics. Helicopter tours are now the best way to get a good view.įor visitors to this glacier region of New Zealand, on the west coast of the South Island, there are a few must-sees. Until the past couple of years, you could do a walking tour onto the ice but that’s now been stopped because it’s too dangerous.
It’s one of the few ways to see the glacier.
It is quite a walk these day and takes more than 30 minutes to the point where you get a good view of the glacier’s face. But recently it’s been accelerating – and it’s got scientists worried.Įven just in the past few years, it’s noticeable how far the face of the glacier has moved.Īfter driving from the main road, you reach a car park where you leave your vehicle and walk the rest of the way. Some is the natural progression of a flowing river of ice. It has moved a long way in this time – about three kilometres since the 1880s. It is the sad not-so-cold reality of climate change.Īs you drive along the final road towards Fox Glacier, signs on the side mark the point where the face of the ice was at various points in history.
It’s not what we should be aspiring towards. The sad new motto of New Zealand’s glaciers. Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier, South Island, New Zealand
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