We’re off to Greymouth on the Trans-Alpine train which runs from Christchurch to Greymouth. Met a family from Ottawa Canada. They’ve been traveling for 4 months around the world, having been in NZ for a month already. They said a month is not long enough to see NZ. They have 3 kids ages about 10-15 and the mom is home schooling them along the way.
The train ride was quite nice. Departed Christchurch at 8:15 AM and arrived in Greymouth at 1:00. The views were beautiful. First we went through the industrial part of Christchurch, then to the countryside. Lots of sheep and cows, some horses in pastures along the tracks. Fields were separated by tall rows of trees or very tall hedge-rows. We followed most of the time along a river that flows out of the mountains. All the rivers around here are very wide and shallow and the water meanders in several figure "8s" through this very wide shallow, flat river bed. The river bed is wide because a couple times a year the water actually fills up the whole width due to heavy rain in the mountains causing the water to bring silt and gravel down from the mountains. The water is also very clear and mostly not glacial looking, however there are some parts that do look glacial.
At the top of the pass, Arthurs Pass, they let us off the train for 5 minutes to look around. There was nothing there but the train station. Back on board and under way, we soon came to the longest of the 19 tunnels we went through. This one was 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) long, and reported to be the 7th longest tunnel in the world. On the Christchurch side of the tunnel the weather was nice, on the Greymouth side, it was foggy, with low clouds that hung on the mountain peaks and threatened rain.
In Greymouth we had lunch at a little place in town. I had a panini that was very similar to the one Florian serves at Hally K’Ono. This one was chicken, brie and apricot jam, but tasted just like Florian’s chicken, brie, pear panini. Maybe she’s from New Zealand?!
In Greaymouth we rented a car and started driving south along the West Coast of NZ. Ken drove and his left side of the street driving came right back to him since living in England 24 years ago. The roads are nice and in good shape. The only thing that was really different is that many of the bridges crossing the rivers (plenty of them) were one lane bridges AND at least two of the bridges we crossed were also shared with the train track! Yes, one lane shared by two opposing directions of traffic plus a train! We didn’t see any trains near these bridges but all indications were they are active tracks.
It started raining about half way to Franz Joseph (our stop for tonight). The whole drive from Greymouth to Franz Joseph was about 2 ½ hours of beautiful cloud shrouded mountains and fields.
After checking into our hotel we drove into town, 3 km down the road. Still raining. Town is one block long, with two restaurants, a small grocery store, two gift shops, and several tour outlets for helicopter and guided glacier hike tours. Due to the low clouds we have seen no sign of a glacier yet, but heard tomorrow might clear up a bit. I hope so, since the post cards really make it look amazing. Even if the rain doesn’t stop, we’ll probably try a walk to the base of the glacier, just to say we did. Rain doesn’t seem to stop people around here. We have rain jackets, but maybe it's time to buy rain pants, too.
The train ride was quite nice. Departed Christchurch at 8:15 AM and arrived in Greymouth at 1:00. The views were beautiful. First we went through the industrial part of Christchurch, then to the countryside. Lots of sheep and cows, some horses in pastures along the tracks. Fields were separated by tall rows of trees or very tall hedge-rows. We followed most of the time along a river that flows out of the mountains. All the rivers around here are very wide and shallow and the water meanders in several figure "8s" through this very wide shallow, flat river bed. The river bed is wide because a couple times a year the water actually fills up the whole width due to heavy rain in the mountains causing the water to bring silt and gravel down from the mountains. The water is also very clear and mostly not glacial looking, however there are some parts that do look glacial.
At the top of the pass, Arthurs Pass, they let us off the train for 5 minutes to look around. There was nothing there but the train station. Back on board and under way, we soon came to the longest of the 19 tunnels we went through. This one was 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) long, and reported to be the 7th longest tunnel in the world. On the Christchurch side of the tunnel the weather was nice, on the Greymouth side, it was foggy, with low clouds that hung on the mountain peaks and threatened rain.
In Greymouth we had lunch at a little place in town. I had a panini that was very similar to the one Florian serves at Hally K’Ono. This one was chicken, brie and apricot jam, but tasted just like Florian’s chicken, brie, pear panini. Maybe she’s from New Zealand?!
In Greaymouth we rented a car and started driving south along the West Coast of NZ. Ken drove and his left side of the street driving came right back to him since living in England 24 years ago. The roads are nice and in good shape. The only thing that was really different is that many of the bridges crossing the rivers (plenty of them) were one lane bridges AND at least two of the bridges we crossed were also shared with the train track! Yes, one lane shared by two opposing directions of traffic plus a train! We didn’t see any trains near these bridges but all indications were they are active tracks.
It started raining about half way to Franz Joseph (our stop for tonight). The whole drive from Greymouth to Franz Joseph was about 2 ½ hours of beautiful cloud shrouded mountains and fields.
After checking into our hotel we drove into town, 3 km down the road. Still raining. Town is one block long, with two restaurants, a small grocery store, two gift shops, and several tour outlets for helicopter and guided glacier hike tours. Due to the low clouds we have seen no sign of a glacier yet, but heard tomorrow might clear up a bit. I hope so, since the post cards really make it look amazing. Even if the rain doesn’t stop, we’ll probably try a walk to the base of the glacier, just to say we did. Rain doesn’t seem to stop people around here. We have rain jackets, but maybe it's time to buy rain pants, too.
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