One of the West Coast's top tourist attractions is paying the price for the heavy rain that fell on the region earlier this week.
Five hundred metres of the Fox Glacier access road has been washed away, limiting access to the glacier and stranding tourists' vehicles.
Local tourist operators including rental car companies and alpine tour guides are suffering after lucrative Christmas bookings were cancelled. They say they have no idea when the road will be repaired.
Tourists can stick to the valley wall and clamber over rocks to get to the glacier, but the Department of Conservation warns that they are risking their lives.
"It tends to bleed rock and we're talking stuff the size of a car," DOC's Mark Nelson says. "It'll drop out of the top without any warning."
However it has not been bad news for all businesses. Helicopter companies have been doing a roaring trade.
It is hoped that a narrow makeshift road will be in place within a week, but it could be the end of summer before tourists can drive up to the glacier themselves.
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