Fox Glacier Valley Track

The easy viewpoint walk to Fox Glacier’s snout only takes half the time and effort as the walk to Franz Josef, and thus EVERY tour bus and EVERY tourist chooses this walk if they only have time for one glacier walk. Expect LARGE walking groups. Even though it can seem fairly crowded, everyone should do it, even if you’ve already walked up FJ’s valley. Fox’s ice-wall snout is more impressive than FJ’s…more crevassed and buckled and less covered with dirt and debris than Franz’s, showing more of that wonderful glacial blue between all the black streaking.

The walk is short, and since you can’t see as high up the valley from where the track is, the actual walk is less captivating than FJ’s. To liven the walk up a bit bring a plastic grocery sack and take note of the gravel-covered block of “dead ice” oozing water just 100m into the track from the carpark. On the way back from the ice wall take a step up the “dead ice” and give the edges a knock to chip off your own handful of dirty glacial ice. This big hunk of glacial ice has been sitting there melting for 50 years—since the glacier’s retreat up the valley in the 1960s! Chip off some hunks, give ’em a rinse, and then either have a mouthful of glacier or use them to glacierchill a cocktail!