Glaciers of the Southern Alps

Overview:

Sparkling Glac­i­er Coun­try – the tow­er­ing impos­ing peaks of New Zealand’s South­ern Island Glac­i­ers are a tru­ly stun­ning sight to behold, as you both mar­vel and explore these incred­i­ble ancient green, emer­ald ice won­ders that cas­cade down to the sea on both foot, from the sky and from the serene fjord land and for­est that lie at their base. Made up of thou­sands of indi­vid­ual ice glac­i­ers – includ­ing the stars of the show of Fox and Franz Josef and the near­by Cook Moun­tain whose peak clocks in at an impres­sive 3,724 m – the South­ern Alps, whose for­ma­tion began at the time of the ice age, also stand as an incred­i­ble reminder of the fragili­ty and evo­lu­tion of nature, with the Glac­i­ers known to be in retreat and sci­en­tists esti­mat­ing that they will be unrecog­nis­able by the end of the cen­tu­ry. It is this heart-break­ing notion, com­bined with the sheer stun­ning beau­ty of these ice par­adis­es and the unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to stand atop a mov­ing Glac­i­er that make the glacial jew­els of the south­ern alps a tru­ly spe­cial won­der of the world – and one that we’d encour­age you to vis­it as soon as pos­si­ble.

Con­sid­ered the most untamed and wild nature of New Zealand, the Glac­i­ers of the South­ern Alps form part of the Pacif­ic Ring of Fire, and take their names from a com­bi­na­tion of New Zealand icons – includ­ing the for­mer New Zealand Prime Min­is­ter Sir William Fox. Yet despite their recent nam­ing – the Glac­i­ers which are rivers of ice now frozen and flow­ing down moun­tains – are known to date back more than 2 mil­lion years to the Pleis­tocene ice age, with the largest of these glacier’s the Tas­man Glac­i­er known to have retreat­ed and advanced con­sis­tent­ly over the years to reach is cur­rent length of more than 25km long – with the advance­ment and pow­er of the Tas­man Glac­i­er known to have cre­at­ed the sparkling lake Pukai below – where explor­ers are able to come face to face with ice­bergs.

Along­side the Tas­man Glac­i­er and the more than three thou­sand glac­i­ers found in the south­ern alps – with sev­en­teen top­ping the 3,000 metre bar­ri­er — there’s a range of incred­i­ble glac­i­ers in the more than 500 kilo­me­tres that make up the South­ern Alps – but for the best of the Alps we’d encour­age you to head towards Franz Josef and Fox Glac­i­ers – who now stand as two of the remain­ing three glacial val­leys on the plan­et that lie along­side rain­for­est.

Found just an hour apart by car, these two Glac­i­er Val­leys are the hub for explo­ration of the South­ern Alps – and for good rea­son with the incred­i­ble ice caves, nar­row pas­sage­ways and stun­ning views found across them being both oth­er world­ly and tru­ly inspir­ing. With the Glac­i­ers them­selves being eas­i­ly explored and ser­viced by many tour oper­a­tors, includ­ing Heli-day hikes – which see’s you grab your cram­pons and trek across the ice after arriv­ing by heli­copter, boat and kayak tours which see you come face to face with ice­bergs in the shad­ows of the glac­i­ers, heli-ski­ing for the adven­tur­ous explor­er who wants the unique expe­ri­ence of ski­ing on a mov­ing glac­i­er – and of course for a birds eye view and an adren­a­line pump­ing expe­ri­ence there’s always the option to explore the Glac­i­er from a sky­dive.

Tru­ly incred­i­ble and on a clear day offer­ing you daz­zling emer­ald ice views and some of the most spe­cial and roman­tic pho­tos on the plan­et, the Glac­i­ers do remain under con­stant threat and there’s a harsh truth that they won’t be around for­ev­er, with the Glac­i­ers of the South­ern Alps hav­ing been in con­stant retreat since the late 19th cen­tu­ry and hav­ing lost on aver­age 25% of their vol­ume since that time despite con­sis­tent efforts to main­tain and pro­tect these incred­i­ble won­ders.

Still for those lucky enough to see and step foot on the beau­ti­ful icons of the South­ern Alps and jour­ney across these still mov­ing Pleis­tocene ice age mar­vels you can expect an awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence filled with some of the world’s most incred­i­ble scenery and a tru­ly fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­ni­ty to jour­ney across not just his­to­ry but one of the most mag­nif­i­cent, breath-tak­ing and unfor­get­table won­ders of the world.

Where:

A vast won­der stretch­ing for more than 500kilometres – the South­ern Alps are made up of thou­sands of breath-tak­ing snow-capped Glac­i­ers – with the Glac­i­ers them­selves being both grouped togeth­er or stand­ing alone across the South Island of New Zealand and stretch­ing from the Spenser Moun­tains in the North down to the won­ders of Fjord land at the very south­ern tip of the South Island.

Giv­en their vast size and the inac­ces­si­bil­i­ty of some of the Glac­i­ers the focal point of the Glac­i­er Coun­try is found in the charm­ing vil­lage of Franz Josef – where the Glac­i­ers of Franz Josef and Fox lie – and which are the two main Glac­i­ers for acces­si­bil­i­ty, beau­ty and that give explor­ers a tru­ly unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence on these won­ders of the world. With the vil­lage of Franz Josef lying in the South­ern lying on the mid­dle west­ern side of the Island and being eas­i­ly acces­si­ble from major South­ern Island cities – includ­ing Queen­stown, Christchurch and Wana­ka – as well as from the North Island – giv­ing explor­ers a range of options to get to these mag­nif­i­cent won­ders of the world.

Getting There:

Nes­tled in the low­er half of the South Island of New Zealand the jew­els of the South­ern Alps – the Franz Josef and Fox Glac­i­er are incred­i­ble acces­si­ble – with a num­ber of the oth­er alps and Mount Cook requir­ing spe­cial­ist arrange­ments to explore and sum­mit.

So focus­ing on the twin Glac­i­ers of Franz Josef and Fox– which we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend mak­ing your focal point for the explo­ration of the South­ern Alps in con­sid­er­a­tion of both time and bud­get – and these two glis­ten­ing glac­i­ers are incred­i­bly acces­si­ble – with a range of options to both get there and explore them.

Start­ing with get­ting there and Franz Josef and Fox are both served by the local Franz Josef Vil­lage – cen­tred around explor­ing the Glac­i­ers and which fea­tures a range of accom­mo­da­tion and food options, and which serves as an incred­i­ble base to explore these won­ders.

The vil­lage itself – along with the Glac­i­ers can be eas­i­ly reached by fly­ing into the South­ern Islands of New Zealand and then by Car, with the Glac­i­ers being just 4 hours dri­ve away from the beau­ti­ful and adven­tur­ous city of Queen­stown on the South­ern Island or just three hours dri­ve away from the incred­i­ble lakes and moun­tains of Wana­ka.

Alter­na­tive­ly there’s also the option to fly into Auck­land, explore the north island and take the fer­ry from the North Island to the South Island and then con­tin­ue your dri­ve down past oth­er won­ders of New Zealand and arrive at Franz Josef. For those dri­ving and want­i­ng to explore more of the Glac­i­ers do note that giv­en their size and vol­ume for those want­i­ng to wit­ness the snow-capped peaks of Tas­man Glac­i­er your best bet is to dri­ve from Christchurch – as the road from Franz Josef Vil­lage is inac­ces­si­ble.

For those who don’t fan­cy dri­ving in New Zealand there is also the option to take a bus to Franz Josef – with New Zealand’s inter­ci­ty and NZbus ser­vices both being incred­i­bly reli­able and com­fort­able – and with bus ser­vices avail­able to Franz Josef from across the islands – includ­ing from Wana­ka, Queen­stown and Christchurch on the South Island – and as part of a an extend­ed tour leav­ing from the North Island – giv­ing you plen­ty of options to reach the vil­lage of Franz Josef to begin your explo­ration.

Once with­in the vil­lage – the next stop will be to get your­self onto the Glac­i­ers, which is also eas­i­ly done, as they lie jus a short dri­ve from the vil­lage – and there’s a range of options upon which to explore the Glac­i­er. First up and the eas­i­est, most enjoy­able and high­ly rec­om­mend­ed is to go on a day Heli-hike across the Glac­i­ers – where you can expect to have the full ser­vices of a guide, be pro­vid­ed with Cram­pons and a pick axe and jour­ney across and through these incred­i­ble Glac­i­ers after arriv­ing by heli­copter– for an for­get­table and awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence on the Glac­i­ers.

Along­side hik­ing – there’s also the option to explore the Glac­i­ers by kayak or canoe, by head­ing down into the Glac­i­ers that lie at the foot and around the South­ern Alps – which gives you a more peace­ful and per­son­al moment with these incred­i­ble won­ders – and gives you the added bonus of kayak­ing along­side ice­bergs for anoth­er immense expe­ri­ence.

For a final option – and for one for the dare­dev­ils – the Glac­i­ers of Franz Josef and Fox also make for an incred­i­ble place to sky­dive – with there being a num­ber of tour oper­a­tors who can see you hov­er above the Glac­i­ers in a place before tak­ing the ulti­mate plunge over these awe-inspir­ing won­ders – mak­ing for an adren­a­line and unfor­get­table way to expe­ri­ence these incred­i­ble won­ders of the world.

Best time to Visit:

Open all year round – and despite their cold appear­ance for­tu­nate to enjoy mild tem­per­a­tures by glob­al and glac­i­er stan­dards, there is tru­ly no bad time to vis­it the won­ders of Glac­i­er Coun­try – so it comes down to both your own sched­ule and avail­abil­i­ty or whether you pre­fer to vis­it dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son or the win­ter sea­son with the vary­ing advan­tages each sea­son brings.

For those who fan­cy vis­it­ing dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son – which runs from Sep­tem­ber to May – and peaks in the Christ­mas months, you can expect activ­i­ty on the Glac­i­er to be in full flow, with mul­ti­ple heli-hik­ing tours in action all day round – with the warm sum­mery con­di­tions both on the glac­i­er and in the sur­round­ing hik­ing trails, Fjords and rain­for­est being incred­i­bly pleas­ant and enjoy­able – with the heat on some days even mean­ing that the Glac­i­ers can be explored in a t‑shirt and shorts.

Along­side the enjoy­able sum­mer vibes, vis­it­ing Glac­i­er Coun­try in the sum­mer months does sad­ly come with a draw­back – with the increase in crowds also result­ing in high lev­els of book­ing in accom­mo­da­tion in and around Franz Josef vil­lage – which in turn results in the prices for accom­mo­da­tion ris­ing – so for those plan­ning a sum­mer get­away to the Glac­i­ers you’re advised to book well in advance and increase your bud­get.

For those who aren’t a fan of crowds and have the option to vis­it dur­ing the win­ter months then you’re also guar­an­teed an incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence on the Glac­i­ers – with the win­ter months, which run from June to August see­ing tem­per­a­tures of between 5 – 12 degrees, and as a result of the increased rain­fall and the occa­sion­al snow­storm, those vis­it­ing in the win­ter months can expect not only more dra­mat­ic ice fea­tures – such as ice caves, tun­nels and crevass­es, but the extra rain­fall real­ly bring­ing to life the green­ery of the sur­round­ing for­est and help­ing to make the Fjords more dra­mat­ic – for a tru­ly serene and dra­mat­ic expe­ri­ence.

Com­bined also with few­er crowds, which can make for a more peace­ful expe­ri­ence on the Glac­i­er – as well as the increased snow­fall which can make those pho­tos on the Glac­i­ers extra spe­cial, the draw­backs of both heli-hikes being post­poned due to adverse weath­er con­di­tions and hav­ing to bear some extra lay­ers in the win­ter is more than worth it to expe­ri­ence the Glac­i­ers and sur­round­ing scenery in full flow.

So while there’s tru­ly no bad time to vis­it the Glac­i­ers – you can expect dif­fer­ing expe­ri­ences in both the sum­mer and the win­ter months and so when vis­it­ing this incred­i­ble won­der of the world it tru­ly is up to the explor­er which ver­sion of Glac­i­er Coun­try they want to expe­ri­ence – but vis­it­ing at any point is guar­an­teed to leave you with both breath­less and in awe of this incred­i­ble won­der.

How long to stay

Giv­en the vast size of the South­ern Alps – and giv­en the thou­sands of Glac­i­ers to explore and the chance to sum­mit the mighty Mouth Cook as well as step foot on the twin jew­els of Franz Josef and Fox Glac­i­er – it tru­ly is pos­si­ble to get lost in the beau­ty of the South­ern Alps and spend weeks and months explor­ing these incred­i­ble nat­ur­al won­ders.

How­ev­er owing to the con­straints of both time, mon­ey and the real­i­ties of the work­ing world, trips to the South­ern Alps are sad­ly lim­it­ed to days – and we’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing at least three days when vis­it­ing Glac­i­er Coun­try. Allow­ing for three days will give you time to not only get at least one hike in upon a Glac­i­er, but give you spare time to enjoy Franz Josef Vil­lage, trek with­in the Rain­for­est and Fjord – and for those set on Heli-hik­ing give you a cou­ple of days lee­way in the event of adverse weath­er.

So, while it’s pos­si­ble to both cov­er the Glac­i­er in a day for those on a tight sched­ule,  for those with unlim­it­ed resources who want to ful­ly explore the beau­ty of these stun­ning Glac­i­ers — we’d rec­om­mend set­ting aside three days to explore the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the South­ern Alps.

Top Tip

A stun­ning nat­ur­al won­der, trips to the South­ern Alps can be fraught with dan­ger – as you trek and explore these con­stant­ly evolv­ing Pleis­tocene ice age mar­vels. Whilst every pre­cau­tion are tak­en by those under­tak­ing guid­ed hikes on the two main jew­els of Franz Josef and Fox Glac­i­er, we’ve put togeth­er a series of top tips — includ­ing advice on the heli-hikes and gen­er­al point­ers – to help ensure your vis­it to this incred­i­ble won­der is both safe, has­sle free and enjoy­able as pos­si­ble:

- First­ly we’d advise to make sure you under­take a hike on either Franz Josef or Fox Glac­i­er – which is tru­ly the best way to explore this incred­i­ble won­der – but to make sure you do it on a guid­ed tour. Tak­ing on a tour with a guide will not only see you have the incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence of a heli­copter ride up the side of a Glac­i­er to begin your trek but also ensure you are tak­en to the right places, as well as guar­an­tee­ing that you will be sup­plied with all the appro­pri­ate gear includ­ing cram­pons, pick axes and fol­low what is known to be a safe route using well placed and pre-plant­ed ropes – which will help to not only ensure you get to see the absolute best of the Glac­i­ers, but that you do so in a safe man­ner.

- We’d also advise – and par­tic­u­lar­ly for those vis­it­ing in the sum­mer months – that you book both your tour and accom­mo­da­tion well in advance. The rep­u­ta­tion of the South­ern Alps for being an incred­i­ble beau­ty spot is grow­ing and grow­ing – and thus the won­der is becom­ing more pop­u­lar, lead­ing in turn to both guid­ed hikes and accom­mo­da­tion in Franz Josef Glac­i­er sell­ing out in advance – so to ensure you both get to expe­ri­ence stay­ing in the Glac­i­er Coun­try Vil­lage and you’re guar­an­teed a spot on the Glac­i­er we’d advise to book in advance.

- Addi­tion­al­ly for those who want to take on a Heli-hike, we’d advise to not only book in advance but be sure to give your­self an extra cou­ple of days – par­tic­u­lar­ly in win­ter – as owing to the some­times unpre­dictable weath­er at the Glac­i­er, which can see sud­den storms or down­pours Heli-hikes only have a 40% suc­cess rate, and so giv­en there’s a good chance any Heli-hike will be sub­ject to weath­er con­di­tions we’d advise bud­get­ing an extra day to make sure you get to the adren­a­line rush­ing expe­ri­ence of a Heli-Hike on a Glac­i­er.

- Final­ly it’s impor­tant to be pre­pared for all weath­er con­di­tions at Glac­i­er Coun­try – so we’d advise to make sure you come pre­pared with water­proofs, good hik­ing shoes, sun­glass­es and for those vis­it­ing in the sum­mer months a pair of shorts and a t‑shirt and a back-up plan for how to spend a day for vis­it to the Glac­i­ers are sad­ly off the table, not­ing that while the tem­per­a­ture is con­sis­tent with the sea­sons, the weath­er can be unpre­dictable and rain­storms and snow­storms can strike at any moment, so to ensure you get the absolute­ly best expe­ri­ence explor­ing the South­ern Alps its best to come pre­pared for adverse weath­er con­di­tions.

Cost

A glis­ten­ing won­der a trip to Franz Josef and Fox Glac­i­er will see you have to pay for accom­mo­da­tion, a Heli-hike – along­side the cost of reach­ing the vil­lage of Franz Josef from where you can base your­self to explore the Glac­i­ers.

Con­sid­er­ing get­ting there first and Franz Josef Vil­lage is incred­i­bly acces­si­ble, with the eas­i­est option being to fly into the major cities on the South Island – Christchurch or Queen­stown and hire a car and dri­ve direct­ly to the vil­lage. For those fly­ing domes­ti­cal­ly you can expect flights from Auck­land in the North Island to cost you around $00 NZD dol­lar – and then the price of hir­ing a car rang­ing from between $40 — $80 NZD dol­lar a day.

For those trav­el­ling from fur­ther afar you’ll need to get your­self to New Zealand – with Auck­land being the main hub for inter­na­tion­al trav­ellers and flights leav­ing from across to plan­et – with a price of an inter­na­tion­al tick­et vary­ing from your ori­gin point – but we’d advise to set aside at least $500 NZD for an inter­na­tion­al trip to Auck­land. From Auck­land you have the option of fly­ing domes­ti­cal­ly to the South Island – or tak­ing the scenic route which involves dri­ving through the North Island and tak­ing the fer­ry to the South Island and then con­tin­u­ing South to Franz Josef Glac­i­er – with the scenic route esti­mate to cost around $250 NZD dol­lar to reach the Glac­i­er.

Once at Franz Josef Vil­lage we’d rec­om­mend set­ting aside $100 NZ Dol­lar a day for accom­mo­da­tion and Food – although if your bud­get allows you will find some more upmar­ket accom­mo­da­tion then can cater for a more relax­ing stay.

From the vil­lage undoubt­ed­ly the thing not to miss out on is a day tour Heli-hik­ing across one of the Glac­i­ers – and you can expect a sin­gle slot on such a tour to cost between NZD $ 475.00 — NZD $ 650.00 – which is not cheap but accounts for your heli­copter ride to the top as well as all the gear required for the hike and hope­ful­ly plen­ty of pho­tos.

For those on a big­ger bud­get and who want to explore the Glac­i­ers from a dif­fer­ent but serene angle we’d advise tak­ing on a kayak­ing tour in the Fjords below – includ­ing on the icon­ic Lake Mapouri­ka which lies just below the Glac­i­ers and in the shad­ow of Franz Josef Vil­lage – and you can expect a one-day Kayak­ing tour to cost around $100 NZD, which in our book is well worth the mon­ey as you get to kayak along­side ice­burgs next to the incred­i­ble Glac­i­ers.

Final­ly for the thrill seek­ers and for an adren­a­line pump­ing expe­ri­ence there is all the option to sky­dive over the South­ern Alps for a true buck­et list expe­ri­ence, again this expe­ri­ence is not cheap giv­en the costs involved of being on a flight to the jump spot and hav­ing a sky­div­ing mas­ter with you, so you can expect to fork out around $500 NZD per sky­dive – but a price worth pay­ing for what is sure to be an expe­ri­ence that will stay with you for­ev­er.

So all in, once you’ve arrive in New Zealand we’d advise bud­get­ing between $1200 — $1700 NZD for a trip to the South­ern Alps, which is on the dear side but well worth it for an incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence on these stun­ning – and fast melt­ing – won­ders of the world.

Fun Fact:

Along­side stretch­ing for more than 500 Kilo­me­tres and being home to more than 3,000 Glac­i­ers – with the biggest the Tas­man Glac­i­er being more than 1,900 feet and 18 miles, as well as being the site of the high­est Moun­tain in New Zealand the mighty Mount Cook at a peak of 12,218 feet, the South­ern Alps are also the sight of mul­ti­ple instances of rich his­to­ry for New Zealand – with the nation which is now divid­ed into two island once hav­ing stood as one thanks to the South­ern Alps, as the Cook Strait which cur­rent­ly sep­a­rates the islands hav­ing once con­nect­ed the two islands before melt­ing away some­time after the ice age.

Along­side this the South­ern Alps have also been the scene of mul­ti­ple plane crash­es, with vic­tims and the planes sad­ly find­ing them­selves not only run­ning foul of the icy struc­tures but on occa­sion becom­ing buried with­in the Glac­i­ers – only to be redis­cov­ered years lat­er as a result of the Glac­i­ers move­ment, with the most recent dis­cov­ery of a plane being in 1983, from a plane which crashed in 1951 – with the plane sad­ly remain­ing ensconced in ice until being dis­cov­ered decades lat­er.

Final­ly, the South­ern Alps and their Glac­i­ers are known as a hotspot for gold – with the Gold Rush of the late 1860’s known to have cen­tred around the west coast of New Zealand as a result of melt­ing Glac­i­ers – and although most of the Gold is thought to have been dis­cov­ered from the area there’s no telling what a true mod­ern day explor­er may dis­cov­er on their jour­ney across the mighty South­ern Alps.

Best photo spot:

The most acces­si­ble and beau­ti­ful rivers of ice on the plan­et, the sparkling won­ders of Glac­i­er Coun­try are tru­ly a sight to behold and one of the unde­ni­able jew­els of the South Island of New Zealand. With these incred­i­ble Glac­i­ers – which stretch more than 500 kilo­me­tres in width and tow­er more than 3,000 meters into the crisp New Zealand Sky being a true sight to behold.

Their dom­i­nance across the South­ern Island sky­line, com­bined with them being backed by eas­i­ly acces­si­ble rain­for­est, glo­ri­ous reflect­ing lakes and glis­ten­ing fjords where ice­bergs float make these incred­i­ble Glac­i­ers and all of Glac­i­er town a tru­ly beau­ti­ful place to not only mar­vel at these won­ders but snap some of the great­est nature pho­tographs on the plan­et.

While tak­ing in the peaks of Mount Cook and Tas­man and the mighty south­ern alps from any angle or from any of the neigh­bour­ing towns includ­ing Ōkāri­to and Franz Josef Glac­i­er vil­lage are guar­an­teed to give you great angles of these spe­cial icons of New Zealand, we’ve picked out our top two favourite places and expe­ri­ences across Glac­i­er Coun­try that can give you that extra spe­cial pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of these incred­i­ble won­ders of the world:

A Heli-Hike on Franz Josef or Fox Glacier

Along­side snap­ping pho­tos of the incred­i­ble Glac­i­ers from the ground lev­el, there’s no bet­ter way to both tru­ly appre­ci­ate and pho­to­graph the Glac­i­ers by step­ping foot upon them – and luck­i­ly the two Glac­i­ers of Franz Josef and Fox are both incred­i­bly acces­si­ble through a Heli-Hike, as well as being easy to trek which can pro­vide you with sim­ply stun­ning pho­tos of the inside, ground and scale of these incred­i­ble Glac­i­ers.

Fed by a series of rivers, and con­stant­ly mov­ing and evolv­ing, a Heli-hike trek on the Glac­i­ers – which lie just a few miles away from Franz Josef Glac­i­er Vil­lage – brings you tru­ly face to face with ice views of the Glac­i­ers – and you can expect to pho­to­graph the

nar­row gaps of the Glac­i­er – includ­ing your­self push­ing through them, ice stair­ways carved into the Glac­i­ers and the sheer cliff face of the Glac­i­er – all of which makes for incred­i­ble pho­tos.

Nec­es­sary to be under­tak­en on a guid­ed Heli-hik­ing tour – which will ensure you will be tak­en to all the best pho­to spots across the Glac­i­ers – a Heli-hike on the Glac­i­er also pro­vides an incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty at the sum­mit of the glac­i­ers when you land – with the panoram­ic view from atop the Glac­i­er giv­ing you an incred­i­ble shot out over the entire South­ern Alps from above – where you get the unique chance to snap look­ing back down over the Glac­i­ers, the Rain­for­est and the fjord land below that awaits you for an incred­i­ble com­bi­na­tion pho­to of the mighty South­ern Alps.

From Lake Matheson:

While there are many incred­i­ble lakes and Fjords to explore along the South­ern Alps that give you beau­ti­ful shot of the South­ern Alps against the glis­ten­ing waters of New Zealand – there’s some­thing tru­ly spe­cial about the waters of Lake Math­e­son – known as the reflec­tive lake – and undoubt­ed­ly it’s a tru­ly spe­cial place to come to cap­ture the full beau­ty of the South­ern Alps in all their glo­ry.

Offer­ing a mir­ror lake view of the South­ern Alps – the lake sits on the edge of lush green forestry and offers a pic­ture per­fect view of the beau­ti­ful south­ern alps in what is an absolute­ly incred­i­ble pho­to. Spe­cial dur­ing the day – par­tic­u­lar­ly in the cool light crisp days of win­ter where the Glac­i­ers become more promi­nent thanks to Snow­fall, the views of Lake Math­e­son are even more stun­ning at either sun­set or sun­rise – where you can wit­ness the incred­i­ble New Zealand Sun light­ing up the lake in a kalei­do­scop­ic range of orange, yel­low – and if you’re lucky deep pur­ple – for a tru­ly mes­meris­ing shot.

A tru­ly spe­cial and mag­i­cal place – offer­ing diverse pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties thanks to the ever chang­ing sky and reflec­tions — a trip to Lake Math­e­son is an absolute must for any explor­er seek­ing to grab the best snaps of the beau­ty of New Zealand and the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the South­ern Alps.