Magnificent mountains and lakes all around Fox Village make this a breathtaking destination - especially when you have perfect weather for a spectacular helihike on Fox Glacier!
After checking into our rooms at the Bella Vista Motel on the first day, after lunch in Franz Josef, the rain had stopped so we decided to walk up the valley to view the Fox glacier.
It was cloudy with mist drifting through the mountains but that didn't stop quite a few people from doing the walk. The glacier is retreating so each year less and less can be seen from below, but the glacial valley it has carved is impressive.
Near to the motel is a stretch of podocarp primeval forest, also with glow worms - best seen after dark! Podocarps are coniferous trees with a very ancient lineage. The forest is about as far in character from a leafy English wood as it is possible to get, and still be surrounded by trees!
The atmosphere is mysterious, the trees festooned with mosses and lichen, tall tree ferns filtering light to the forest floor.
I absolutely love this kind of forest in New Zealand, it is amazingly atmospheric.
Lake Matheson lies 5km outside Fox village and is famed for its mirror views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. You need a clear day and no wind.
The walk to viewpoints is also very pleasant and there's a good cafe at the entrance to the walks. We had a very good meal there one evening, sharing a prosciutto, parmesan, rocket and cherry tomato pizza, washed down with excellent Scott Base pinot noir.
We made a couple of visits to the lake but the conditions were never quite good enough for the chocolate-box shot, but we did get some lovely early morning shots.
On a perfect day we arrived at Fox Glacier Guiding, just across the road from our motel, at 8:40 and bussed to the helicopters where we were given a safety talk and kitted out with very comfortable boots and socks.
We got on the helicopter to take us up on to the glacier and I had the prime front window seat!
It was fantastic weather, not a cloud in the sky.
When we landed our guides showed us how to put on the crampons and our group (6 Chinese, 2 Taiwanese and us) set off with Danny who proved to be an excellent guide.
We set off in single file following Danny as he told us something about the glacier, how it is generally retreating but sometimes advances too.
We saw ice arches, moulins - vertical shafts in the ice, and slid down a water slide beneath an ice arch. The features are continually forming and eroding so the surface of the glacier is constantly changing.
Danny hacked steps in the ice as we went, though there were guides on the ice doing this too, refreshing the paths that are taken to explore the glacier.
It was a really fabulous three hours on the ice, and much easier going than the Perito Moreno.
Towards the end Danny showed us the tiny worms in pools that are the only creatures that can live on the ice, surviving on microbes.
