A panorama showing Fox Glacier Village. This village exists primarily to serve tourism based around visiting Fox Glacier. The picture shows the main road through the village, which is lined with hotels, motels, restaurants and tour operators.

Fox Glacier travel guide and map showing the tourist attractions, hotels and places of interest around Fox Glacier in New Zealand. Virtual tours with 360° panoramas from Fox Glacier, maps and local information.

Fox Glacier is one of the top tourist attractions on the South Island of New Zealand. The glacier is 12km long, and lies in Westland National Park. The front end of the glacier is close to Fox Glacier Township. Access to the glacier tongue is from a car park about a 30 minute walk away along the Fox Glacier Trail.

Fox Glacier starts high up on the slopes of Mount Cook (Aoraki) and Mt Tasman, whose peaks reach heights of 3000m. The snow collecting bowl at the top of the glacier, known as the 'nevé' covers some 36 square kilometers, larger than the footprint of Christchurch in Canterbury. The ice is funneled into a narrow valley which results in Fox Glacier being one of the fastest moving glaciers on earth. During the 12km long trail from head to base, the Fox Glacier ice flow descends 2,600m where it ends in temperate rain forest.

Unlike most glaciers on earth, Fox Glacier has been growing since about 1985, and a terminal moraine can be seen being pushed up before it. This will change if the amount of snow falling on the mountains reduces in years to come.

One of the prime tour operators locally is Fox Glacier Guiding. They provide half and whole day guided walks on the glacier (Fox Trot and Nimble Fox tours) as well ice climbing (Fox It Up) and a glacier heli hike (Flying Fox). Fox Glacier Guiding will also provide walks to the glacier's terminal face, but this can really be done unaided.

Fox Glacier is about 121km north of Haast, and about 24km south of Franz Josef Glacier.