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Fifty years of tourism innovation, growth and dogged hard work are being celebrated at Fox Glacier Guiding on the untamed natural wilderness of the New Zealand South Island’s West Coast.
Fox Glacier Guiding was born in 1974 when mountaineer Mike Browne and wife Carrol moved to remote Fox Glacier from Mt Cook to ‘help out’ for a winter with existing glacier guiding trips.
Carrol met Mike at Mt Cook when she did a climbing course and he was the instructor, only later working out that she didn’t have a head for heights.
“I did have a head for him, though!”
The duo grew the business steadily over the next 31 years, rising to challenges including changes to the glacier as it shrank or grew, the stock market crash of 1987, floods, glacier access and mushrooming visitor growth putting pressure on glacier guide numbers.
“From the beginning when it was walk-on access, no matter what happened we would get people up there,” says Mike. “I particularly enjoyed creating that climax to every trip, even if it was difficult.”
In the mid-80’s Mike and Carrol were committed to business growth. “We went all out and built a large building, with a fantastic shop and café. We’re so proud of the teams that have run the shops and café, and supported guides over the years.
“Glacier guiding is different to mountain guiding, it’s lots and lots of people. Our common goal was to keep people safe and give them a good time.”
In the late 1980’s the business grew rapidly, and with that growth came challenges.
“We got through with the help of good friends and an incredible set of young people who came to be staff,” says Carrol.
In 1999, Marius Bron arrived in Fox to learn the ropes as a trainee guide, planning to move on after a couple of seasons. Twenty-five years later he’s still there as lead guide and operations manager.
“Hilary Cave and Rob Kirkwood were senior guides who mentored me; I was the right guide at the right time in the early 2000’s to become a lead guide and help run the business. I never looked back.”
In 2005 additional shareholders joined the business including Adrian Januszkiewicz, Wayne Boyd, Geoff Laurence and Jeff Morrison, but with Mike and Carrol still involved behind the scenes, the business has never lost its ‘family feel’.
Experienced tourism professional Rob Jewell joined as CEO in February 2007 and says he’s “very grateful” to have joined a team with years of experience and knowledge.
“Much of what we have in the business in terms of culture, people and vibe all stem from Marius’s influence,” says Rob.
That experience and dogged determination to keep the business going came to the fore with the April 2014 floods, where the glacier front collapsed and the company lost access to the ice.
“Without access, we didn’t have a business,” says Marius. “We built systems and created new plans and operations, including working out how to get across the river with no bridge that included rafting and using a Unimog.”
“We put together the ‘Quick Fox’ package, basically to get to an isolated massive chunk of ice, that did really well,” says Rob.
“By December 2014 we had our new DOC concession, were into Heli Hiking, and never looked back.”
The team’s looking forward to the next 50 years.
“Since 1974, many of our guides have become international mountain guides, climbed or skied some amazing places and continue to do so,” says Marius.
“I love being part of the legacy of Fox Glacier Guiding, part of an adventure that started almost 100 years ago when the Fox Hotel first offered guided glacier trips. This is a very special part of the world.”
