The Franz Josef Glacier is a glacier in the Westland National Park on the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on the west side of the New Zealand Alps. Like its southern neighbor, the Fox Glacier, it flows down the steep western flank of this mountain range from its shallower breeding area. It drains across the Waiho River into the Tasman Sea.
The Climate change allowed the Glacier to grow because more and more moisture entering the air and the clouds had to snow off at the Southern Alps before the clouds can get over this huge mountain massif, with an average height of over 1500 meters.
There was a time that the glacier had even migrated into the ocean. But now even these ice are getting too warm and retreating more and more into the mountain. It unearths a deep dig with huge slopes into the valley, which the meltwater digs it ever deeper and in the summer small waterfalls drop off from the high rock walls everywhere.