Things to do in  Franz Josef & Fox Glacier

This is an absolute must-do in Franz Josef, without a doubt the best way to see the glacier. Friendly and professional staff and pilots. An awesome experience.

Amazing tour to see the Franz Josef glacier! The tour company was very professional and knowledgable about the glacier and the region. The short helicopter ride was fun, with an overhead view of the town and the glacier. Our tour guide skillfully navigated us on the glacier and was very knowledgable. It was a once in a lifetime experience that we're SO glad we did!

it had been raining last week and i heard that previous sessions were cancelled due to bad weather. Lucky me, it was a sunny morning (though i have planned to stay for 2 nights, just in case) The center provided us waterproof jacket and trousers, socks, shoes, crampons, beanie, gloves and a cross body bag - so you dont have to worry about the gears. it started with a short helicopter ride to the glacier starting point. We had a few short-legged participants and I noticed our awesome guide Kallie has taken good care of care of them. Safety is the first priority and it has been repeatedly reinforced throughout the journey that no photo taking is allowed whenever there is a handrail around. There are plenty of good and safe spots. The hike took around 3 hours. Appreciated our guide Kallie moderated the pace all along. The view at the glacier is much better in winter (you can see the snowy mountains only in winter). The hot pool was rejuvenating, especially after the hike. It is just next door- you can enter once anytime during your stay at Franz Josef.

This was a beautiful, relaxing and highly enjoyable kayak. The scenery was amazing, the guides were friendly and knowledgeable about not only kayaking but about New Zealand and the kiwis in the kiwi sanctuary. While not high on the 'adrenalin junkie' list, this is a must do activity for anyone visiting Franz Josef wishing to see the amazing scenery.

Really enjoyed hiking on the Glacier in Franz Josef. The company were very accommodating when we had to change the time of our booking at the last minute due to a closed road. I'm glad we chose to walk with the faster group so we got to see more of the Glacier, our guide was fantastic and very interesting, knew what he was talking about and had many stories to tell. Only downside was some of the other people in our group (about ten of us per group on the glacier) who were very irritating and didn't follow the instructions the guide gave them, meaning one ended up falling through thin ice!!!

Simply a must do when in Franz Josef if the weather allows. Our guide was very friendly and helpful, she cleared paths with her ice pick to make the hike easier, lent a helping hand on the steeper obstacles and even took group photos for us. The scenery is amazing and exploring the paths, stairs and caves is real experience. The hike itself was no trouble at all for average fitness people, if you can walk and climb stairs you can do it, the crampons and the guide do all the hard work for you. We went during summer so didn't need many extra layers, most on the tour had to take off the gore-tex jackets.

The helicopter flight is absolutely a "must do" activity, especially if you have a very limited time in hand. When we arrived in Franz Josef we were told at the reception of the helicopter office that there were only 2 of us doing the helicopter flight, so we were advised to wait for an hour or come back at 4:15. Each flight requires a minimum of 3 passengers. While waiting we drove around town. Unfortunately, no one showed up to do the Franz Josef Neve Helicopter Flight. We were then asked if we wanted to wait until the next day, have a full refund or upgrade to the 30-minute flight as an option and pay extra NZ150 on top of what we already paid. There was no other choice because we travelled so far to enjoy and not spoil our holiday and we had schedule to leave the next day.Who said money can't buy happiness? We did upgrade, and it was indeed definitely worth doing and we can't think of a better way of celebrating our silver wedding anniversary. It was a truly enjoyable, incredible, amazing and memorable experience.We love New Zealand, it is a very beautiful country and the locals are very hospitable and warm. We would love to visit again someday with family and friends and enjoy more of it's spectacular and breathtaking sceneries!

We spent 3 weeks traveling around both of NZ Islands and this was one best experiences we had. We Did both Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. We went as a family of 4 with two boys aged 9 and 10 who just loved the glaciers and the excitement of going on a helicopter. The guide at Franz Josef was Cliff who is very experienced and great with the boys. We did the Fox glacier the day before however Franz Josef was much better, because of the natural ice formations had a lot more going on. Plus our guide was happy to take us to any of the ice formations that we wanted to look at so long as it was within the safe zone. Whilst at Fox they had a path marked out with stones and you were only able to see what they had planned. Many of the ice formations on Fox was generated by the guide company who were there with picks and shaping the ice. We felt we did the glaciers in the right order with fox first and then franz Josef because be think that fox may have been disappointing if we had of done it the other way round. It's great to be able to do them both but if you can't do them both then Franz Josef by helihike is the way to go.