Fox Glacier and Haast

Fourth day into our 16-day South Island tour. It was going to be another long day on the road, but who was complaining? I knew I wasn’t, because today we were going to Fox Glacier, one of the highlights of the tour. It didn’t matter that the journey would be long, or the road too straight and monotonous – I was looking forward to the walk on the glacier.

En route to the glacier, we stopped at Hokitika, 40km south of Greymouth. This little town is famous for greenstones – jade.

Finally, we arrived in Fox Glacier in the afternoon. We spent about 4 hours walking up to the highest point (about 950m) and return. It was a pleasant walk, with Scott, our guide, doing some briefing and explaining along the way.

Due to time constraint, it was a pity that we could not visit Lake Matheson (near Fox Glacier), supposedly a very beautiful lake.

By the time we arrived in Haast, it was 11:00pm. Checked in the motel, had a good shower and time to retire to bed as more hours of travelling awaiting us the following day.

Clock tower, Hokitika

Jade Factory

Interesting display of fridge magnets, Jade Factory

Snow-capped mountains everywhere


Fox Glacier





The trail

Scott, our guide, climbing up the aluminium ladder

People walking up the glacier in
the distance, long way to go for us!

More walking before reaching the glacier

Putting on the crampon before reaching the ice area

Finally – the glacier!



Scott hacking the ice to make walking on it easier

One for the album!

On the way back