Within Westland National Park in New Zealand, just a few short kilometers (but a longer, windy, and up-and-down drive) from the Franz Josef sits another of New Zealand’s famous glaciers – Fox Glacier. The glacier is located just outside the (similarly creatively named) town of Fox Glacier (population 248).
We stopped here for a night, seeing the glacier two ways. On the drive in, we stopped at a viewpoint located some distance from the mountains, but with a good angle to look all the way in to the glacier.
The next morning, we drove to a trailhead to view the glacier from a second, closer viewpoint.
The glacier was still some distance away from this second viewpoint, but we were equally (if not more) impressed by the hike to the viewpoint. This trail starts out at a wide riverbank, but quickly leads into some of the most lush temperate rainforest environment you’ll ever see. We started calling it the fairy forest even before we were done with the hike – you’ll see why in the video!
