Things To Do

Gillespies Beach is a 21 km drive from Fox Glacier Weheka township. Head west along Cook Flat Road passing the turn off to Lake Matheson and the Peak Viewpoint along the way. After 8 km turn off to Gillespies Beach Road and follow this for 11 km to the end.

Half of the journey is on a narrow, unsealed road – keep left, and keep your speed to a minimum. The road is not suitable for towing vehicles.

In 1865, gold was discovered in the area by a miner called Gillespie. His find led to a swarm of prospectors arriving and the small claim soon became a bustling township home to several hundred people.

But the township didn’t last long. By 1920, most of the prospectors had left, unable to access the gold they believed was still in the ground. When a bucket dredge arrived, there was hope the new machinery would access untold riches. But this too, turned out to be folly. Today, visitors to Gillespies Beach can view the rusting remains of the dredge (the beach’s stones and pieces of timber were sucked up by the dredge, rendering it useless).

Just before the signposted turnoff to the Gillespies Beach campsite and car park there is a short walk to the historic miners cemetery. The cemetery is a reminder of the harsh environment the early gold prospectors lived and worked in.

The Gillespies Suction Dredge Walk is a short loop track starting from the main Gillespies Beach car park. Wander past historical remains of the suction dredge used by the miners in the late 19th century. Interpretation panels take you back to when Gillespies Beach was a bustling gold mining town.

Follow the Miners Tunnel Track from the main Gillespies Beach car park and camping area through gorse-covered dredge tailings to the remains of an old 1930s gold dredge. On a clear day the mountain tops will peak above the gorse. Continue to the Miners Tunnel or Galway Beach or, return the way you came or via the beach.

Continue past the bucket dredge and out onto the beach. Walk north along the beach until you reach Gillespies Lagoon. The lagoon is crossed by a bridge 5 minutes inland. Enjoy spectacular views from here on a fine day.

From the lagoon the track follows the line of a gold miners’ pack track, climbing up an old glacier moraine before entering a tunnel built to provide an all-tide access route for miners. The track emerges to a viewing point above the beach – there is no access to the beach from this point.

Follow the Miners Tunnel Track from Gillespies Beach car park and campsite. Turn off at the Galway Beach sign, just before the miners tunnel. The track weaves through rimu forest and leads to a remote beach. The seal colony at Galway Beach is a haul-out (resting) colony for seals in the winter.

Take care not to disturb the seals and never get between the seals and the sea. Do not try and walk through the colony to Gillespies Lagoon – you must return to the car park via the track.

In April 2019 this track was re-opened after a 20-year closure thanks to the efforts of local volunteers. This initiative was led by the Fox Glacier Community Development Society in partnership with DOC.

In 2020 the track was then upgraded, as part of a package of work to sustain tourism in the area and build the glacier country's economic resilience.

Beginning from the Lake Matheson carpark, follow the Lake Matheson/Te Ara Kairaumati walk in an anti-clockwise direction before branching off to Lake Gault.

The track gradually climbs 200 m through original podocarp forest with several small stream crossings.

As the track flattens out, you’ll catch glimpses of Lake Gault through the vegetation. Continue several minutes to the lookout point.

The lookout spot offers incredible panoramic views of the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, Aoraki/Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. On a still day, these peaks are perfectly reflected on the surface of Lake Gault.

Early morning is the best time for mirror views, when the lake is calm and before clouds obscure the mountains

It is where rimu rainforest meets the sea, a great place to take a walk along the beach. This is the absolute untamed, natural wilderness

Located 30 minutes south of Fox Glacier on the banks of the Mahitahi River, Bruce Bay boasts a permanent population of 6 residents. If you include the residents of nearby Lake Paringa, you’re looking at a bustling district of 33 people.

The solitude and rawness of this stunning area are what make it so worth a visit. Sitting bravely between dense rimu forest and the wild sea, Bruce Bay and Lake Paringa offer an impressive example of the West Coast at its very best.

Bruce Bay / Mahitahi is a place of special significance to Makaawhio, the local Maori iwi. The beach was once used as a highway for Maori inhabitants travelling around the area and today is the location of the Te Taauaka Waka a Maui marae. Translating as the landing place of Maui’s waka, Te Taauka Waka a Maui marae is on the site where Maui first landed in New Zealand. Flanked by glacial moraine and stunning forests, it’s not hard to see why the area still holds great importance.

This lookout is a two minute walk from the car park on Cook Flat Road.

Enjoy the picnic area and on a clear day use the plane table. It is mounted on a stone plinth and can be used to identify the peaks of the Southern Alps Kä Tiritiri o Te Moana.

Location
Once you arrive in Fox Glacier Village, turn off the Main Road State Highway 6 and drive down Cook Flat Road. The junction is next to the old Fox Glacier Hotel and clearly signposted for both Lake Matheson and Gillespie’s Beach. Please adhere to the speed limit and remember that you will pass the local school. Drive past the turn off for Lake Matheson and continue on till the road becomes unsealed.

Just before the Clearwater Creek Bridge there is the Peak View lookout and picnic area. There is a plane table that directs your line of sight and on a clear day you can pick out individual peaks on the Southern Alps including Mt Cook/Aoraki and Mt Tasman.

SH6 to Blowfly Hut

Time: 1 hr 30 min

The initial section of the track to Blowfly Hut detours from the original route to avoid a lowland swampy area around Windbag Creek. Once past the swampy area, it soon picks up the original line.

The flat well-benched track then follows the Moeraki River to a junction about 1 hour’s walk away.  Blowfly Hut is a further 15 minutes’ walk from this junction, across the swing bridge to your left. There's a turn-off to your right just before Blowfly Hut that you need to take to continue the Historic Haast to Paringa Cattle Track.

Blowfly Hut to Māori Saddle Hut

Time: 4 hr 30 min

The track to Māori Saddle winds its way steadily uphill through mixed beech, rimu and kāmahi forest, typical of southern Westland. Along the way, you'll pass some good examples of stone culverts built by the mica miners.

There's also a historic miner’s campsite near the helipad, 5 minutes before the Mica Mine Tops Route junction. Continuing towards Māori Saddle, sections of the track are quite rough – in heavy rain, access becomes more difficult due to the numerous stream crossings. Crossings are marked, but the rocks are very slippery, so take care.

There are some diversions where slips have destroyed the original track, however, these are well marked and should not be difficult to follow. There are some very large specimens of beech trees along this section. There are also some relics of the historic ‘telegraph line’ that ran beside the track.

Mataketake Hut turnoffs

Mataketake Hut can be started from two points on the Historic Haast to Paringa Cattle Track:

The first is Mica Mine Tops Route around 2 hours from Blowfly Hut.

The second is Māori Saddle Route signposted 10 minutes past Māori Saddle Hut.

Coppermine Creek Hut

Time: 7 - 9 hr

This longest section of the track is downhill most of the way. Follow the markers on the other side of diversions where vegetation is overgrown and at windfalls and slips especially at Slippery Face near Robinson Creek where the track crosses the alpine fault line.

Eventually the track swings to the north and follows a fence-line towards Coppermine Creek where the DOC hut is on the “true right” of the creek and the furthest of the three huts. It is another two-hour walk to the highway.

In 1875 pioneer farmers at Haast constructed the cattle track. Stock from farms in the Landsborough and Cascade Valleys were driven to sale yards at Whataroa, a two-week journey at best.

In mobs of around 200, the cattle were grazed overnight on flats near Coppermine Creek. It took around 14 hours to make the 17 km journey to Blowfly Hut next day. From there the cattle were herded across the Moeraki River and on to Lake Paringa.

It is thought that nearly 50,000 cattle travelled the route throughout its history, with a maximum of about 700 per year in the 1940s. In 1961 the last mob was driven through to Whataroa and the track condition deteriorated. In 1965 the route through the Haast Pass (SH6) opened. In 1981 the old Cattle Track reopened as an historic walk in the Te Wahipounamu South West New Zealand World Heritage Area.

• The Copland Track was built by the Tourist and Health Resorts Department to provide a tourist route across the Southern Alps linking the West Coast with the Hermitage, a popular lodge at Mt Cook.
• In 1901 New Zealand became the first country in the world to form a government department to develop and promote tourism. Along with places such as Rotorua, the Chateau (Tongariro) and Milford, The Hermitage and the Southern Alps were becoming popular destinations with the growing number of international tourists.

The track was constructed over several years from c1901-1913. Construction was slow and hampered by labour shortages. The harsh alpine weather made it impossible to work on the track during winter, so work was restricted to the summer months. Work was also delayed by the unstable nature of the landscape and high rainfall in the area.  This meant sections of track often had to be rebuilt due to damage from flooding, erosion and landslides.

At first the track was little more than a blazed line through the bush that had the tendency to become quickly overgrown. Eventually the track was widened and developed into a pack track.

There were no other tracks of this scale constructed solely for tourist use on the West Coast. The doggedness with which the completion of the track was pursued by the Government highlights the importance the Copland Track had in their plans for tourism in the South Island.

Welcome Flat hot pools

During the construction of the track, workers came across the natural hot pools at Welcome Flat. This was a great find - thermal attractions were proving popular with visitors and seen by the government as key to stimulating tourism. The route quickly became a popular tourist trip and was one of the key tourist attractions that sustained the fledgling tourist industry in the area.

The Okarito lagoon is home to more than 70 bird species including the rare White Heron/Kotuku. Each year adult Kotuku come from all over New Zealand to the country’s only breeding area on the Waitangiroto River near Whataroa. The Okarito lagoon is their main feeding ground and the permanent home for some of the population.

Okarito is a former gold town and rich in history with several wetland, coastal or trig station walks close by. Popular activities include kayaking and boat tours on the lagoon.

For experienced and well-equipped trampers only. Check with the Westland Tai Poutini National Park Visitor Centre before starting.

This rough route climbs steeply through the bush up a spur to a trig point at 1021 m above sea level. The route then follows blue and orange markers through grassland to 1345 m.

From here your efforts will be well rewarded with fantastic views of the Southern Alps Kā Tiritiri o te Moana and Fox Glacier Te Moeka o Tuawe in one direction and across coastal forest and farmland to the coast to the other.

Take care above the bushline as the track can easily be lost if conditions are misty or if the cloud descends.

Start early in the morning to be on the mountain top before cloud rolls in obscuring the view. This is a regular event, particularly in the summer months.

This delightful short walk follows a stream through the rainforest - it's a great introduction to the forest for children with the added bonus of glow worms at night. It's suitable for wheelchairs and buggies.

This relaxing walk follows a small stream through the rain forest. There are few places in the world where virgin forest can be found so close to an urban centre. Enjoy the first hand experience of the rugged entanglement that is the West Coast podocarp forest. Return along the road or back along the track.

At night glow worms can be seen in tree trunks and along the banks of the stream. Glow worms are not actually worms; they are actually the maggots of a fungus gnat Arachnocampa luminosa. They use their glowing lights to bewitch small flying insects and ensnare them in their sticky threads. The Moari call them titiwai which means "lights reflected in water."

Start your walk on the Fox Glacier South Side Walkway/Cycleway. Bikes are not permitted on the Moraine Walk, so if you have cycled leave your bike at the start of the Moraine Walk.

Off the main walkway/cycleway the track narrows as this easy walk takes you over the old moraine surfaces and reveals how quickly plants establish here. Moraines are the debris of rocks and stones left when a glacier retreats, and the walk begins on a surface several thousand years old before crossing the AD1600 and AD1750 moraines.

When you meet the walkway/cycleway at the other end of the track you can return via the walkway/cycleway or back along the Moraine Walk. You can also explore further up the valley to the viewpoints before returning to the car park.