Introducing Fox Glacier

My new home is in a tiny little town on the south west coast of the South Island, famous for the massive glacier next to it. It's very similar to the town half an hour's drive north called Franz Josef, which is also right next to a glacier. These two glaciers are very special and unique as they are both among the only glaciers in the world to end among rainforest, at only 300m above sea level. This also makes them among the most accessible and are major tourist attractions.

The 'Terminal Face' - the front end of the glacier

The Fox Glacier township is about 6kms away from the glacier, with mountains right behind it and farmland leading to the coast on the other side. It sits on the one main road that goes along the coast so anyone travelling either north or south will go through the town. It's quite far away from everything, with the next big town of Hokitika 150kms/nearly two hours drive away, or about six hours from Christchurch through a mountain pass. In Fox there are a load of motels and accommodation, a couple of pubs, a restaurant, a small general store, a couple of cafes, a DOC (Department of Conservation) office and my work, Fox Glacier Guiding, which also serves as the local post office. I think a lot of people underestimate how small it really is. The Franz Josef township is a bit bigger (big enough for a 4Square supermarket instead of a general store!) and has a few more things to do so sometimes it's the more popular town, though the Fox Glacier is bigger and nicer!

The West Coast is famous for it's rain as well as it's isolation, but there turns out to be plenty of great sunny days. The views are absolutely stunning when the clouds clear! I found it interesting that for the most part a rain storm here will come and go pretty quickly, with torrential downpours that last a few hours (or up to 24 hours in a bad storm), followed by a good stretch of really decent weather and clear skies. In Christchurch and other places I've been rain, drizzle and clouds will stick around for a week or two so it makes for a good change. There are also some fantastic sunsets here with it being the west coast of the island, and the beach is only 25mins drive away.

My workplace at Fox Guides runs guided tours up on the glacier and is a super popular tourist attraction - you don't often get a chance to walk around on a glacier after all. The only access onto it now is via helicopter though, after ice collapses and rock falls last year destroyed the access point for walking onto it from the ground. So the main tour we do is a 'heli hike,' though there are also options for ice climbing and a quick walk up the valley to get a view of the front of the ice. My job is to check people in for these tours, as well as take bookings and sell souvenirs from our shop. I'm really liking getting to talk to people from all over and helping them to have an awesome, unique travel experience - it's great to be working in the tourism industry!