Fox Glacier or Te Moeka o Tuawe in
Māori language is 12 km long and is part of the located in
Westland National Park on the
West Coast of the South Island. The glacier got its name in 1872 when the then Prime Minister of
New Zealand, Sir William Fox, visited the area. Fed by four alpine glaciers,
Fox Glacier falls 2,600 m on its journey from the
Southern Alps down towards the coastal plain. It is one of only a handful of glaciers in the world that ends among lush vegetation and thick rainforests only 300 m above sea levels and in temperate conditions. Although retreating throughout the past 100 years,
Fox Glacier has actually been ‘growing’ since 1985; an average of about one meter a week has been added since. The outflow of the glacier forms the Fox River on the western slopes of the Southern Alps; during the last ice age, its ice reached beyond the current coastline and the glacier left behind many moraines.
Lake Matheson, one of
New Zealand’s most scenic lakes, formed as a kettle lake within one of these moraines.