Five and a half hours
Franz Josef is about three hundred and fifty kilometres from Queenstown by the only sensible road, and that road takes five and a half hours before you stop for anything. People routinely plan it as a day trip and it does not work. This page lays out the route, the realistic timings, where to break it, and what a sensible Franz Josef itinerary from Queenstown actually looks like.
Quick answer
The short answer. Do not try it as a day trip. Drive up over two days with a night in Wanaka or Haast, spend two nights in Franz Josef, and fly on the first morning. If you have only three days total, drive up in one go, arrive in the evening, fly the next morning and keep the second morning in reserve.
The drive itself
It is one of the best drives in New Zealand. It is not a drive to do twice in a day.
The route is a single road, State Highway 6, and it divides neatly into three parts.
Queenstown to Wanaka is about an hour, either over the Crown Range — the highest sealed road in the country, and worth it in good weather — or the longer way round through Cromwell. Wanaka is the last town of any size and the sensible place for fuel and coffee.
Wanaka to Haast is the Haast Pass: two and a half hours through beech forest, past Lakes Hawea and Wanaka, over a low saddle in the Southern Alps and down a gorge full of waterfalls to the Tasman Sea. It is the best driving of the trip and it is also where there is no phone coverage and no fuel for a long stretch.
Haast to Franz Josef is a further two hours up the coast, with the sea on one side and rainforest on the other, through Fox Glacier village and on to Franz Josef. The last hour is the one where the mountains reappear on your right and you understand where you are going.
Itineraries that work
All of them assume you want to fly, and therefore that you want more than one morning in Franz Josef.
Day one: drive Queenstown to Franz Josef, arrive early evening. Day two: fly on the first departure, spend the afternoon on the valley walk. Day three: drive back, with the second morning held in reserve if day two was cancelled. Tight, but it works.
Night one in Wanaka. Night two and three in Franz Josef, flying on the first morning with a spare. Drive back on day four. This is the itinerary most people should choose.
As above, plus a night at Fox Glacier. Lake Matheson at dawn, and a second glacier village that is quieter and cheaper than the first. The extra night also gives you a third possible flying morning.
Queenstown up the west coast to Franz Josef, then north to Hokitika and east over Arthur’s Pass to Christchurch. No backtracking, spectacular the whole way, and it turns the drive from a cost into part of the trip.
However you get here, the weather is the thing that decides whether you fly. Read this before you fix the dates.
Weather and cancellations→Not driving
Bus. Daily coach services run Queenstown to Franz Josef in around eight hours, and they stop at the good places on the way. If you are not confident on a narrow mountain road in rain, this is a genuinely reasonable choice, and the drivers know the coast.
Flying to Hokitika. Hokitika has a small airport with services from Christchurch, and it is about two hours north of Franz Josef by road. This is the fastest way to get here from the North Island, but it still requires a hire car at the other end.
Scenic flights from Queenstown. Fixed-wing scenic flights over the glaciers do operate from Queenstown, and they are a different product from what is on this site: longer, more expensive, and usually landing at Franz Josef or Fox for a short helicopter transfer. If you genuinely have only one day, that is the option — but you are buying a flight to the glacier rather than a flight over it.
Book direct
Book the first departure of the day, whichever length you choose.
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Common questions
About three hundred and fifty kilometres by road, which is five and a half hours of driving before any stops. In practice, with fuel, food and the Haast Pass viewpoints, allow seven to eight hours.
Not sensibly. Eleven hours of driving to spend a couple of hours in the village, with no margin if the flight is cancelled, is a bad trade. Give it two nights.
State Highway 6 the whole way: Queenstown to Wanaka, then the Haast Pass to the coast, then north through Fox Glacier to Franz Josef. Fill up at Wanaka and Haast — there are long stretches with no fuel and no phone coverage.
About the same — roughly five and a half hours over Arthur’s Pass. Many people drive up from Queenstown and out to Christchurch, which avoids repeating the same road.
Yes, daily coach services from Queenstown take around eight hours and stop at the viewpoints on the way. It is a reasonable alternative if you would rather not drive the pass in rain.
Two at a minimum. Roughly half of all flights here are affected by weather across a season, and a single night gives you a single morning. Two nights turn a coin toss into good odds.
Go deeper
Twelve helicopter flights out of one village, from twenty minutes to ninety.
PricesTwelve flights priced per person and per minute, and where the money actually goes.
VerdictTwelve flights ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
LandingsWhich flights actually put the machine down, and what the difference is.
LengthThe only real variable, and how much country each length buys you.
Which oneTwo glaciers, twenty-five minutes apart, and the flights that show you both.
