Recession status · Aotearoa New Zealand
New Zealand has lost 35% of its glacial ice since 1978. The trend is accelerating. This page tracks the documented recession of the glaciers we have data for — and links to all 300+ named glaciers across the motu.
Rising temperatures mean less snowfall reaching the upper basins, and more melt at the terminus. For steep glaciers like Franz Josef and Fox, that imbalance shows at the ice face within 5 to 6 years. For larger, debris-covered glaciers like Tasman, the ice doesn't retreat — it thins. The surface drops. The lake grows. The result is the same.
The most documented glacier in the Southern Hemisphere. Lost ~3 km since the 1800s. After a 25-year advance ending in 2008, it entered the fastest retreat ever recorded — 1.5 km in 9 years.
Franz Josef's neighbour. Similar behaviour, same trend. Advanced 710 m between 1985 and 1999, then retreated consistently from 2009 onwards. The access road has been destroyed by glacial floods twice.
New Zealand's largest glacier. 23 km long, 600 m thick. It doesn't retreat at its face — it thins. A century ago visitors climbed up to reach the ice surface. Now it sits 130 m below the surrounding moraines. A lake that didn't exist in 1985 is now 6 km².
Flows south from the flanks of Aoraki/Mt Cook. Like Tasman, it terminates into a growing proglacial lake. The lake has expanded significantly as calving accelerates at the ice face.
Another Aoraki/Mt Cook glacier terminating in a proglacial lake. Mueller Lake is now clearly visible from the Kea Point track — a lake that simply didn't exist for most of the 20th century.
One of NIWA's monitored index glaciers. A cirque glacier — small, steep, and exposed. These respond fastest to temperature shifts with no insulating debris layer, no proglacial lake to slow calving. What you see is direct atmospheric warming, unfiltered.
The glacier that launched New Zealand's monitoring programme. Studied by Tom Chinn from 1968 to 1975. In those years it had a magnificent ice-filled cirque and a tiny meltwater pond at its tip. Today the pond is a lake with blue ducks. The glacier is a remnant high on a bare mountainside.
The second largest glacier in New Zealand, flowing east from the Main Divide. It feeds into the Tasman valley system. Like its neighbour, it has thinned dramatically and its lower reaches are increasingly debris-covered, slowing but not stopping the loss.
Tracking 300+ named glaciers across Aotearoa New Zealand. Detailed recession data exists for the glaciers above. The rest are named, located, and documented.
View all glaciers →