We’ve made it to day 6 of our West Coast road trip! Today, we see the Fox Glacier, take a walk to Lake Matheson, and make an impromptu stop at Tauparikākā Marine Reserve.
Catch up on the previous days here:
Day 1 ○ Day 2 ○ Day 3 ○ Day 4 ○ Day 5 ○ Day 7
Fox Glacier
Only 20 minutes from Franz Josef is the tiny town of Fox Glacier. Just like Franz, Fox has a popular glacier that is often accessed by helicopter. Like yesterday, Ben and I opted to see the glacier from afar. We drove to the viewing area I found on Google and were quite impressed with the glacier’s size.
When you arrive at the parking lot, there is a very short path that leads you to a grassy area. Here, there are a few benches, a memorial to the people killed in a nearby plane crash, and a big sundial that lists several of New Zealand’s biggest mountains. You can get a similar view of the glacier from the road leading to this lookout, but I think it’s worth coming here anyway (if only for a little bit of relaxation).
Lake Matheson
About five minutes down the road from the Fox Glacier Lookout is Lake Matheson. This is a really tranquil spot that reminded me a lot of Montana in the US. When you first arrive, there is an information center and a cafe with outdoor seating and splendid views.
There are several different walks you can do at Lake Matheson. Seemingly, the most popular option is the Lake Matheson Circuit, which goes all the way around the lake (1 hour 30 minutes return). Because it was a bit cloudy and windy on the day we went, we decided to do the View of Views Lookout walk (40 minutes return).
There weren’t any jaw-dropping views here for us (although at dawn or dusk on a windless day, there usually are!). We did see and hear tons of birds, including wekas and pukekos. Despite our less than stellar luck with the view, I really enjoyed the serenity of this spot nonetheless.
Drive down the coast
I had to include a section in this post about the drive between Fox Glacier and Haast. The southernmost section of the West Coast is absolutely beautiful and reminds me a lot of the west coast of the United States. It’s crazy how we went from jungle and glaciers to coastal cliffs in under an hour. That’s New Zealand for you!
Tauparikākā Marine Reserve
Ben and I were driving to our campsite for the night when I saw a sign for a marine reserve. At the last second, I told him to turn in so we could check it out. The Tauparikākā Marine Reserve actually ended up being one of my favorite activities of our whole trip, so I’m glad I did!
This area includes a tall wooden viewing tower, beach, river, forest, and swamp. The first thing we did was climb the tower to get some views. There are a lot of informational plaques on and around the tower that tell you about the reserve’s history and what kinds of wildlife you can see.
If you’re going to come here in the afternoon, make sure you bring sandfly spray! The little buggers were apocalyptic. I had countless bites by the time we climbed down the steps.
There are two walks you can do at Tauparikākā: the Swamp Forest walk and the Dune Lake walk. As swamps aren’t something we’re used to seeing, we decided to go that way. You follow a winding path into the forest that later turns into a boardwalk above the swamp.
The amount of biodiversity here is insane. We saw so many different kinds of birds, insects, spiders (!!!), and plants. The really tall trees looked like they came out of a Dr. Seuss book. Such a cool spot with so much to stop and look at along the way. The entire loop took us about 20 minutes to walk through.
And that’s a wrap on day 6 of our West Coast road trip! Stay tuned for day 7, the last and final in-depth day that I’ll be posting about. We drive through the Haast Pass, see a bunch of waterfalls, and walk the Blue Pools track.
xoxo Niki
