The only way onto the ice
A helicopter carries you five minutes up the valley, sets down on the glacier and lifts off again without you. What follows is two to two and a half hours walking in crampons behind a guide who cut the route that morning — through blue tunnels, past crevasses, in a landscape that will have rearranged itself by next month. Since the terminal face collapsed in 2012 there has been no walking route from the valley, which is why a Franz Josef heli hike is not the expensive version of the glacier walk. It is the only version.
Quick answer
The short answer. Book the standard heli hike at $497. It is two helicopter transfers with about two and a half hours on the ice in between, boots, crampons and outerwear supplied, and it carries 398 reviews at 4.8 — more than every other heli hike here combined. Book it for the first morning of your stay and keep a spare day.
What a heli hike actually is
The helicopter is transport. The walk is the product.
The phrase does a lot of work and it hides the shape of the day. A Franz Josef heli hike is not a helicopter tour with a walk attached. It is a guided glacier walk with a helicopter used as a ski lift, because there is no other way to get to the start of the walk.
The day runs like this. You arrive at the base about an hour before departure and spend most of that hour being fitted: boots stiff enough to take a crampon, a waterproof jacket, overtrousers, and a small pack. Crampons are handed over in a bag — you do not put them on until you are up there.
The flight is five minutes and it is the least interesting part of the day, which is an odd thing to say about a helicopter. Up over the terminal face, over the grey rubble the glacier left behind, past the icefall, and down on a flat patch of névé.
Then it leaves. That is the moment everybody describes afterwards: the machine lifts, the noise goes with it, and you are standing on a glacier with a guide, an ice axe and no way down that does not involve someone coming back for you.
Two to two and a half hours later they do.
Book direct
Three heli hikes, two scenic flights, and seven things to do with the days the weather takes. In price order, cheapest first.
★ 4.8 · 169 reviews
★ 4.7 · 188 reviews
★ 4.9 · 137 reviews
★ 4.8 · 77 reviews
★ 4.9 · 72 reviews
★ 4.9 · 326 reviews
★ 4.9 · 129 reviews
★ 4.9 · 190 reviews
★ 4.5 · 44 reviews
★ 4.8 · 398 reviews
★ 5.0 · 1 reviews
★ 4.8 · 28 reviews
The walking
Crampons make you walk flat-footed and slightly wide, and for the first ten minutes you feel ridiculous. Then it clicks, and after that you can go almost anywhere the guide has cut steps.
That is the part nobody mentions: the route is cut fresh. Somebody was up there at seven in the morning with an axe, because last week’s route has moved. A glacier is a river that happens to be solid, and the surface reorganises itself continuously.
What you walk through, depending on the season and the day:
Pressure ridges. Walls of ice the height of a room, thrown up where the glacier is compressed against itself. You walk between them in corridors.
Moulins. Vertical shafts where meltwater disappears into the glacier and does not come back. You do not go near them; you look at them from a safe distance and think about it for the rest of the day.
Crevasses. Some are stepped over, some are walked around, and a few are wide enough that the guide cuts a route down into one and back out the other side.
The tunnels. Blue passages carved by meltwater, two metres of ice overhead, lit from outside so the whole thing glows a colour that does not exist anywhere else. These are seasonal, and they are the reason people book February to April.
Every trip, current fare
The three heli hikes alongside the scenic flights and the wet-weather alternatives, sorted by price. The right-hand column is cost per hour of the whole trip, which is the fairest way to compare a two-hour quad ride with an eight-hour day on the ice.
| Trip | Duration | Price | On the ice | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glacier Lookout Guided WalkThe cheapest guided day in the valley | 3 h | $61 | No — viewpoint only | $20.33 | 4.8 · 169 |
| Fox Glacier Half-Day WalkHalf a day in the quieter valley | 3.5 h | $61 | No — valley only | $17.43 | 4.7 · 188 |
| Lake Mapourika KayakMirror water and the whole Main Divide | 3 h | $74 | No | $24.67 | 4.9 · 137 |
| Lake Mapourika Cruise & WalkThe lake without the paddling | 2.5 h | $82 | No | $32.80 | 4.8 · 77 |
| Okarito Kiwi Sanctuary KayakLagoon, rainforest and a kiwi | 4 h | $94 | No | $23.50 | 4.9 · 72 |
| Off-Road Quad Bike TourRuns when the helicopters do not | 2 h | $138 | No | $69.00 | 4.9 · 326 |
| Franz Josef SkydiveThe other way to be above this coast | 3 h | $193 | No | $64.33 | 4.9 · 129 |
| 20-Minute Snow Landing FlightThe glacier from the air, with a landing | 20 min | $199 | Ten minutes on snow | $597.00 | 4.9 · 190 |
| Fox Glacier & Mount Cook FlightFox and Aoraki in thirty-five minutes | 35 min | $268 | Snow landing | $459.43 | 4.5 · 44 |
| 2.5-Hour Heli-HikeThe only way to walk on the glacier | 4–8 h | $497 | 2.5 hours walking | $124.25 | 4.8 · 398 |
| Extended Heli-Hike with LunchA full day on the ice with lunch | 8 h | $857 | About 4 hours walking | $107.12 | 5.0 · 1 |
| Heli-Hike from QueenstownThe heli hike without the drive | 6.5 h | $995 | About 2 hours walking | $153.08 | 4.8 · 28 |
The 2012 collapse
The valley walk is not a cheaper way of doing the same thing. It is a different thing, and it is free.
For more than a century, guided parties walked onto Franz Josef Glacier from the valley floor. Photographs from the 1980s show queues of people at the bottom of the icefall. That is over.
In 2012 the terminal face collapsed, shedding something like seventy metres of ice off the front and opening a hole where the access route ran. Foot access was closed and has never reopened. The glacier has kept retreating since, and the valley walk from the car park now ends at a roped viewpoint roughly a kilometre short of the present terminal face.
This matters for one practical reason. A lot of visitors arrive with the older picture in their heads: helicopter as the luxury upgrade, walk as the budget version. There is no budget version. There is a Franz Josef heli hike, there is a scenic flight, and there is a view from a distance.
Read this before you book
None of these are secrets. They are simply not what a booking page is designed to say.
A four-hour trip is roughly an hour of boot fitting and briefing, ten minutes of flying and two to two and a half hours on the ice. Read the listing for the walking figure rather than the total, and be suspicious of anything that does not publish one.
The machine has to drop you and it has to come back, so a hike needs a longer settled window than a twenty-minute scenic flight. Operators will happily fly sightseers in conditions that will not carry a hike. Book the first morning of your stay, and stay two nights.
Boots, crampons, a waterproof jacket, overtrousers and a small pack come with the ticket. Buying gear before you come is money wasted. What you do need is thick socks, a warm layer for underneath, and sunglasses.
Around 115 kg including harness and gear on most operators, because you are moving in the equipment rather than sitting in it. Scenic flights are more generous. Declare it when you book.
Meltwater opens them through late summer and they close again. February to April is when the ice is at its most interesting on foot, and it is also the most settled flying weather of the year.
Not sure whether you want the hike at all, or just the view from the air?
Heli hike or scenic flight→Month by month
Franz Josef runs heli hikes year-round. What changes is the proportion of mornings settled enough to carry one, and what the ice is doing underfoot.
Feb – Apr
The best of the year on both counts: the most settled mornings, and late-summer melt has opened the tunnels and the blue features that everybody photographs.
Nov – Jan
Long daylight and the fullest schedule, but peak season. Book ahead, and expect the first clear morning after a bad spell to be completely committed.
Sep – Oct
Snow covers the crevasse field and the route is simpler and whiter, with fewer of the blue features. Fronts come through quickly, so keep a spare day.
May – Aug
Short days, cold and the lowest proportion of workable mornings. When it is clear the light is the best of the year, and it is clear less often.
Common questions
A guided walk on Franz Josef Glacier that begins with a five-minute helicopter transfer onto the ice, because there is no walking route from the valley. You spend about two and a half hours on the glacier in crampons with a guide, then the machine comes back for you. Boots, crampons, jacket and overtrousers are supplied.
The standard trip is $497. The extended small-group day with lunch on the glacier is $857, and the version that starts and ends in Queenstown is $995. All three include the flights, the guide and the gear.
About two to two and a half hours on the standard trip, and closer to four on the extended day. The four-hour figure in the listing includes the gear fitting, the briefing and both five-minute flights.
Fit enough to walk on uneven ground for two to three hours with some step-ups and the occasional narrow squeeze. There is no climbing and no rope work. If you walk regularly you will be fine; if your knees are a problem, say so when you book.
No. The terminal face collapsed in 2012 and foot access was closed. The valley walk ends at a roped viewpoint about a kilometre short of the ice, and every guided hour on the glacier now begins with a flight.
Boots, crampons, a waterproof jacket, overtrousers and a small pack are supplied, and on most operators a helmet and trekking poles as well. You bring thick socks, a warm layer for underneath, and sunglasses.
Often, and more often than scenic flights, because the machine has to come back for you and that needs a longer settled window. Franz Josef sits under one of the wettest skies in New Zealand. Book the first morning of your stay and keep a spare day.
Go deeper
Three heli hikes priced against the scenic flight, and what the money actually buys.
VerdictThree heli hikes compared on time on the ice, group size and what is included.
Hike or flyThe most common wrong booking in Franz Josef, settled with both sets of numbers.
Hour by hourFrom the boot fitting to the pick-up, in order, with the boring parts left in.
Which oneTwo glaciers, two villages, and which one to put your only clear morning into.
WeatherWhy a hike is grounded more often than a flight, and how to build a trip around it.
