Traveling down the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, we stayed in the town of Franz Josef for 3 nights. This is a very small town (population 483) nestled right among the Southern Alps, and relies on alpine tourism as the primary industry. We were quite happy to be some of the first international tourists back to the area.
While most famous for the Franz Josef Glacier (pictured above, also where the town gets its name) there is so much more explore in the area! There are several nearby hiking trails through lush old-growth rainforest, plus some great eateries in the town. Shoutout to our new friends from Singapore with whom we closed down Alice May Restaurant one night!
Also – while this was outside our budget, you can take a helicopter flight to land on the glacier itself! We caught a couple on film, but these were going pretty regularly throughout the day.
Enjoy this video compiling some hikes we took during our visit – a couple viewpoints for Franz Josef Glacier, Roberts Pool and Wombat Lake (“kettle lakes” formed when the glacier retreated over 10,000 years ago), Callery Gorge (complete with a rickety swing bridge across glacial blue waters), and Tatare Tunnels – which you can actually walk through and see New Zealand’s native glow worms if you’re willing to get your feet wet!
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