How to get to Fox Glacier

If you’re travelling from overseas, the closest airport to Fox Glacier is Hokitika (HKK), which is a 1 hour and 45 min drive away. The next closest airports are Queenstown (4.5 hrs) and Christchurch (5.5 hours).

If you’re driving, you can get to Fox Glacier Village on State Highway 6. Below are the average drive times from major destinations on the South Island.

• Christchurch - 5.5 hours 

• Queenstown - 4.5 hours

• Wanaka - 3.5 hours 

• Greymouth - 2.5 hours

• Hokitika - 2 hours

• Haast - 1.5 hours 

• Franz Josef Glacier Village - 25 minutes 

There are no direct trains to Fox Glacier, but you can get close. If you’re coming from Christchurch, you can take a TranzAlpine train to Greymouth and transfer to Fox Glacier with InterCity’s West Coast bus service. Trains depart daily, and the journey takes around 9.5 hours.

You can get to Fox Glacier via bus from Nelson and Queenstown with InterCity’s West Coast service. Just note you might not be able to rely solely on public transport if you want to get to walks, lookouts and nearby attractions.

Fox Glacier is located 6 km from the village. If you’re happy with seeing it from afar, there are heaps of vantage points including Cook Flat Road. However, if you want to get up close and personal, you’ll need to arrange a helicopter or glacier hiking tour. This wasn’t always the case. You used to be able to access the glacier via the valley floor, but it’s no longer safe after a severe flood in 2019.

The good news is you can walk on the glacier, but only with an authorised guide. In fact, you can do way more than just walk on Fox Glacier: you can hike through ice tunnels, peer inside hidden caves and climb up giant ice sculptures, but to do this you’ll need to get there via helicopter.