Gillespies Beach Seal Colony Walk
13 Rankers Reviews
11 Face-to-Face
16 Seal Watching
7 Fox Glacier
Your Nature Guide
Marios Gavalas
Author And Researcher
Nau mai, haere mai
Nau mai, haere mai
I'm Marios, delivering the best of Aotearoa's nature walks to your device.
I've personally walked hundreds of New Zealand's tracks and spent months in libraries uncovering interesting information on New Zealand/Aotearoa. And you'll find a slice of that research on this page - enjoy!
Deep Nature
FREE MAP - The best of 21 nature guidebooks on one map.
Online Maps
Camping NZ NEW
Welcome to New Zealand's most comprehensive database of freely available camping information. This is the only travel map of its kind in NZ.
Photos
Information
Walk along the beach north of Gillespies Beach to visit the seal colony. Keep your eyes open because dolphins like to spend time here. On a nice day, the mountain vista provided by the Southern Alps is breathtaking.
Don't forget your sand-fly repellent as they can be keen and thirsty here!
Access
At the northern end of Fox township turn into Cook Flat Road. Continue past the Lake Matheson turnoff, take the sharp right hander and pass the Peak View Lookout.
From here and for the next 12 km to the coast the road is narrow, winding and unsealed. Not suited to larger campervans. All walks start from the road end carpark where there are toilets and a campground.
Details
| Feature | Value | Info |
|---|---|---|
|
Location |
South Island ▷ West Coast ▷ Fox Glacier |
|
|
Categories |
Reviews
Monique
Ranking: 10/10
Stunning walk through the rainforest, very muddy, good shoes are needed. Signs say 3.5 hours return. plan with 4 to 4.5 hours. We did not see any deals but the walk was cool.
Jade Templer
Ranking: 10/10
Beautiful, adventurous, exciting and we saw a seal! Felt natural and not disruptive to nature, very enjoyable.
Sian Templer
Ranking: 10/10
Beautiful, ever changing walk through forest, across streams, beaches. Muddy and a lot of uphill but worth the effort and I saw one seal at the seal colony.
Rhydian Templer
Ranking: 9/10
Exciting walk through jungle like environments to reach the goal of a seal colony. However, I did fall in the mud!!
Avoid Camping Fines!
Each camping location is approved by a regional council in NZ. So if it shows on the map, you’re allowed to stay.
The Rankers Camping NZ app, is also in association with…
Juan Viscegle
Ranking: 7/10
Really nice walk through the forest with an awesome end at the beach. Not so many seals, but we managed to see one.
Susanna Daaike
Ranking: 8/10
Very nice walk through the forest. It can be dangerous /slippery. Colony far away from the lookout.
Wirth Pascal
Ranking: 10/10
Highlight!! Walk takes more than 3 and a half hours. Adventurous track with muddy challenges.
Udo Wagner
Ranking: 9/10
We did not walk all the way to the seal colony but the walk along the beach to the lagoon and back is great and takes about 2 hours.
Camping NZ App
Every camping site on your iPhone™, iPad™ or Android™ phone or tablet. Avoid camping penalties using this council approved app. Featuring offline maps.
Max Brunner
Ranking: 5/10
Long track. Plan with 5 hours return. Also after rained it was really muddy. We didn't see any seals. Even though the walk is cool don't do it because of seals. There are better spots.
Guillemette
Ranking: 7/10
A long track written for 3 hr 30 mins but minimum 5 hours in fact. But very nice.
Michael Heuer
Ranking: 10/10
4-5 hours return to the colony. You pass a beautiul lagoon and do not miss the short link to the miners tunnel - amazing view.
Hans Bet
Ranking: 9/10
Wild!! Walk with the seals and dolphins.
Indra t Jolle
Ranking: 8/10
Adventurous.
DOC Managed
Thanks to all the good people working for the NZ Department of Conservation - for all your hard work - making NZ more beautiful, accessable and healthy! Cheers 😍
