The Franz Josef Glacier (Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere) offers visitors a rare opportunity to experience a dynamic glacial environment, in a temperate environment, while being within easy driving and walking distance from the main highway. 

In the last ice age the glacier extended in a huge ice- sheet to beyond the present coastline. Although today’s glacier has retreated considerably, echoes of it’s frozen past are still apparent in the present landscape. The terminal face of the glacier is less than 300 metres above sea level and is just one of three to be this close to the coastline.