| TranzAlpine railway - Greymouth to Christchurch | |
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Reluctantly leaving Franz Josef we headed North up the West coast stopping enroute wherever we fancied. The scenery is great and places like Knights Point are popular wildlife lookouts. |
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Deserted beaches are a feature of both islands and takes some getting used to. No wandering around looking for a good spot or problems parking the car in places like Ship Creek. |
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We had to reach Greymouth by 2.00pm in order to catch the Tranzalpine train which was to take us back to Christchurch and we had to allow time for the return of the hire car. This proved easy as the rental desk is on the station but again we spent time finding petrol stations to top up the tank. The beach at Greymouth is stony and is notable for the massive amount of driftwood that collects there. |
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The rail station is pretty small, just one platform and there were lots of pre-booked passengers off loading their luggage, which is dealt with in a similar way to airports. You collect it off a conveyor at the other end. One problem to safeguard against is having sufficient films and batteries for the duration because you are going to take lots of pics. |
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The Tranzalpine arriving at Greymouth terminal. |
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The journey is voted one of the top six train routes in the World and I can't argue about that since I haven't done the others. This one is spectacular and it takes about 4hrs to reach Christchurch, crossing from the Tasman sea to the Pacific ocean. Two additional locos have to be added for the Arthurs Pass gradients and then its downhill to cross the flat fertile Canterbury plain. The observation car is great for photography but it'll ruin your hair. |
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The view are so spectacular you don't which side to look out at. |
