Franz Josef Glacier - Tourism

Tourism

The glacier area is one of the main tourist attractions of the West Coast, with around 250,000 visitors a year, and up to 2,700 per day (2007). Guided and unguided walks up to and onto the glacier are possible however since April 2012 all glacier walks require a helicopter flight past the unstable terminal face, glacier walks require some specialised equipment, namely ice axes and crampons that latch onto a sturdy boot.

As the walking part of any tour up to the glacier takes a long time, and ends at the first icefall (a sort of frozen waterfall, showing a natural dip of the land underneath), numerous tourists book helicopter tours from one of the several local airlines, which usually drop their guests between the first and second icefall, for a guided 1-2 hour walk through the broken ground atop the glacier. Though the glacial landscape changes almost daily with the glaciers unusually fast flow, and some walks include passages through ice tunnels, they are still considered quite safe and only somewhat strenuous.

Franz Josef township is a little service village (approximately 330 inhabitants) located approximately 5 km away from the face of the glacier on State Highway 6. It has a small but busy heliport, numerous tourist accommodation options (with up to 2,000 people staying overnight during the main season) and a number of restaurants and shops.

In June 2010, an Australian tourist died of a heart attack during a guided hike of the glacier.