The Southern Alps, New Zealand are an actively rising mountain belt formed along an obliquely convergent portion (~40 mm/yr) of the AustralianPacific plate boundary. The uplift rate is difficult to quantify in this rugged region because there are no reliable Quaternary markers. The present study attempts to quantify uplift rate at two localities to the west of the Main Divide using Ar/Ar dating and fluid inclusion data from hydrothermal minerals. The rapid uplift of the Southern Alps along the Alpine Fault has resulted in high geothermal gradients and vigorous hydrothermal circulation in the upper crust (Koons and Craw, 1991). These fluids deposit vein minerals, mainly quartz and calcite, with minor gold mineralisation, that cross-cut structures associated with the rise of the Southern Alps and must be late Cenozoic in age. Earlier endeavours using Ar systems in the Southern Alps were fraught with the recurrent problem of excess inherited argon (e.g. Adams, 1981). To address this problem a procedure has been developed to remove inherited Ar from minerals by liberating fluid inclusions prior to final analysis for dating. We have attempted to date samples of adularia, muscovite and actinolite hosted by greenschist facies schists from near Almer Hut on the northern flank of the Franz Josef glacier. Porphyroblastic biotite forming a new foliation in garnet zone schist from near the junction of the Victoria Valley and Fox glacier has also been investigated. This locality is approximately 10 km south west of the Almer Ridge and is closer to the Alpine Fault. Adularia from the Almer Ridge mineralized zone contains numerous large (~100 ~tm) primary, fluid inclusions that homogenize at 240-280~ Adularia with bladed calcite commonly indicates boiling and vapour-rich fluid inclusions have been found in adularia and calcite in similar veins a few km to the northeast (Craw, 1997). This means that the adularia homogenization temperatures reflect true trapping temperatures, and a mineralisation depth of about 400-700 can be estimated from the liquidvapour curve in p-T space (Craw, 1997).