Fox Glacier

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Fox Glacier, also known as Te Moeka o Tuawe, is a glacier on New Zealand’s West Coast in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. It’s one of the world’s most accessible glaciers, with its end face close to the village of Fox Glacier. The Māori name means “The bed of Tuawe,” linked to a local legend about Hine Hukatere and her lover Tuawe.

The glacier is about 11.7 kilometers (7.3 miles) long and is fed by four alpine glaciers in the Southern Alps. It drops about 2,600 meters (8,500 feet) from the high mountains to near the coast, finishing in rainforest about 300 meters (980 feet) above sea level. The Fox River flows from the glacier, and nearby Lake Matheson formed from old glacial debris.

Historically, Māori guided early European visitors to the area in 1857. German geologist Julius von Haast named two glaciers Victoria and Albert in 1865, but the lower Albert Glacier was renamed Fox Glacier after Sir William Fox in the 1870s. In 1998, the glacier was officially named Fox Glacier / Te Moeka o Tuawe, recognizing both names.

The glacier is fed by four alpine glaciers and has moved a lot over time. It advanced between 1985 and 2009, with the 2006 rate around 1 meter per week. Since then, it has retreated, and by 2009 the advancing face was clearly visible only in places above the remaining lower ice.

Access and tourism have a long history. Early roads and huts were built in the 1920s–1930s, and official glacier guiding began in the 1930s. The Chancellor Hut, built in the early 1930s, is the oldest mountain hut in the Southern Alps still in its original site.

Safety has been a concern as many visitors approached the glacier face. In 2009, two Australian tourists were killed after crossing barriers. In 2015, seven people died in a helicopter crash on the glacier.

In March 2019, heavy rains caused floods that destroyed the Waiho Bridge and damaged the northern access road. A huge landslide in the Fox River valley (the Alpine Gardens landslide) moved a vast amount of rock and remains active, blocking the road and forcing access to the glacier by helicopter. To support tourism after these events, a $3.9 million package funded projects such as extending a cycleway to Lake Matheson, reopening tracks to Lake Gault, and improving access on the Fox River valley and nearby areas.