A Weekend in the West Coast of New Zealand
On a weekend in September 2025, it was decided to travel from Auckland, New Zealand to the West Coast of the South Island. The reason? A Heli-Hike experience on Fox Glacier.
Oh yes. This was going to be AWESOME!
Day One: The flight was easy - Auckland to Christchurch, then pick up a hire car at the airport and drive to Hokitika. About 3 1/2 hrs in total. It can be a bit tricky if you’re not familiar with driving NZ roads at night - very dark, lots of tight corners, and impatient townies driving Ford Rangers to keep you on your toes. Best to take it easy and enjoy the journey.
The road winds through some amazing landscapes. It’s an alpine trip so you do get to enjoy some extremes. In Winter this road can be snowed in but on this trip there was only a little snow at the side of the road.
Otira Viaduct
Day Two: An early rise to head from Hokitika to Fox Glacier. Again - an amazing West Coast road to enjoy. Our trip was in weather though. It fluctuatate from no rain to spots of rain to full rain to no rain. And repeat.
Hokitika to Fox Glacier
We stopped in Franz Josef for brunch. Good food options. Decent coffee. Always important.
We then drove the last 30 minutes to Fox Glacier.
Oh Yes!! HUGE excitement. A Helicopter trip and a hike on the ice!!!! HERE.WE.COME!!
Fox Glacier Gliding
To our disappointment, 5 minutes before we arrived at our destination we received a TXT saying the weather had closed in, there was no visibility for safe flying and that our booked trip was cancelled.
SO DISAPPOINTED!!
We got a full refund but that really wasn’t the point. It’s an expensive weekend from Auckland to not get to do what we intended to do.
A word of advice: The West Coast has very variable weather, so yes - book these activities. But be prepared for changes to your plans. If we could stay overnight in Fox Glacier there could have been a re-do the next day, but that didn’t work for us.
What the Glacier looked like precisely 24hrs earlier. Sigh.
We made the most of the time we had left. Back at Franz Josef we walked a couple of trails to see what we could see. It was lovely to get out into nature that you simply don’t have in and around Auckland.
Day Three: We had time so a little exploration North from Hokitika to Westport and surrounds. Not having time to get to Punakaiki (Pancake Rocks) was a little sad but there’ll be a next time. The drive back to Christchurch via Arthurs Pass was great - lovely driving conditions.
At the Otira Valley Lookout you can meet Kea. These native Alpine Parrots are highly intelligent and highly curious. Super fun!
In summary - you CAN do a weekend run to the West Coast of the South Island from Auckland. There is a lot of driving which can be tiring but it’s absolutely worthwhile. It’s a stunning part of New Zealand that I feel everyone should visit at least once.
