Fox Glacier Walks

The walk to see Fox Glacier is the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) Fox Glacier South Side Walk: 6.4 km return, about 2 hours, free, through rainforest to a viewpoint across the valley. DOC’s daily glacier access update of 3 November 2026 had it open, with the viewpoint 2,600 m from the glacier’s terminal face. No walk reaches the ice: the old road up the north side of the valley has been closed since a storm in March 2019, and only a heli-hike puts you on the glacier.

Open or closed, November 2026

DOC says the tracks can close after rockfall or flooded rivers. The status changes day by day: read DOC’s daily glacier access update, issued by the Westland Tai Poutini National Park Visitor Centre and linked from DOC’s track pages, before you set out. DOC listed no alert on the Fox Glacier walks or Lake Matheson on 3 November 2026; that is not a guarantee for your day.

Fox Glacier South Side Walk

Drive 2.0 km south of the village on State Highway 6, cross the Fox River bridge and park on the left; there are no toilets at the car park, so use the ones in the village. The track runs about 40 minutes through rainforest to the first view of the glacier and on to an old car park, where cyclists must leave their bikes, then about 10 minutes downhill to the viewpoint. DOC grades it easy to intermediate, with about 100 m of up and down, and asks walkers not to go past the viewpoint because of an extreme flood hazard. It is 6.4 km return by the same track, about 2 hours.

From the viewpoint the glacier’s terminal face was 2,600 m away on 3 November 2026, and the figure changes as the glacier moves: bring binoculars or a zoom lens if you want detail.

Te Weheka Walkway and the landslide

Te Weheka starts on the left of State Highway 6 south of the Bella Vista Motel, runs beside the road for 400 m, then turns east into the Fox Glacier valley. It ends at a view of the landslide that closed the north side of the valley, which DOC calls the largest active landslide in New Zealand. DOC is plain about it: there is no glacier view from this track. It is 5 km return, about 1 hour 20 minutes, and open to bikes.

Short walks near the village

• Minnehaha Walk: a 1.2 km loop through forest, 20 minutes, starting off State Highway 6 about 50 m past the Bella Vista Motel. It is wheelchair accessible, and glow-worms show in the forest after dark: take a torch.
• Lake Matheson: the 4.4 km circuit, 1 hour 30 minutes, 5.0 km by road west of the village, for the reflections of Aoraki/Mount Cook and Mount Tasman in still water. Lake Matheson has the details.
• Lake Gault Track: 8 km return, about 3 hours, branching off the Lake Matheson circuit and climbing about 200 m to a lookout over the Southern Alps.
• Peak Viewpoint: not a walk but a drive, 9 km from the village towards the coast, with a view of the snowfields at the head of the glacier, best at sunset on a clear day.

Walking it with a guide

Glacier Valley Eco Tours walks the valley with a guide in the afternoons, about 4 hours from Franz Josef, 3 from the 2 pm pickup at the DOC building in Fox Glacier, hot drinks, and rain gear for walking in any weather: Fox Glacier: Half Day Walking & Nature Tour with Local Guide, from US$65 a person (checked November 2026). It goes no closer to the ice than the public viewpoint. To stand on the glacier itself, the heli-hike is the only way.