Features

In the last ice age the glacier extended in a huge ice-sheet to beyond the present coastline. Although today’s glacier has retreated considerably, echoes of its frozen past are still apparent in the present landscape.

The terminal face of the glacier is less than 300 metres above sea level and is just one of three to be this close to the coastline.

Franz Josef Glacier as seen from
Roberts Point, Franz Josef

Take an imaginary journey back in time and witness the awesome power of moving ice, the shaping of the valley, the formations of moraine, and the impressive wall of ice at the terminus of the glacier.

Sentinel Rock

Sentinel Rock offers impressive views of the glacier, the glacier valley, the Waiho River and dramatic examples of colonising plants. To view the massive snowfields of the upper neve you need to take a flight in a helicopter or ski plane.  

Sentinel Rock and the other rock outcrops nearby are hard schist bedrock which have withstood the massive scraping by the ice as the glacier passed by and over. The French term “roche moutonnee”, meaning ‘rock - sheep’ is used to describe these distinctive rounded rocks which were shaped by glaciers. 

In 1865, Sentinel Rock had just emerged from beneath the retreating Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere ice when the valley was first visited by Sir Julius Von Haast. Until 1909 ice pressed against Harper Rock just in front of Sentinel Rock.  

Where the glacier has dumped a veneer of rubble over the bedrock, plant succession is rapid from low shrubs of tree daisy (olearia) and tutu to young rata and kamahi forest which emerge after 100 years. Where bedrock is bare, succession is much slower. Lichens and mosses cover the rocks and shrubs begin growing in crevices.