The Train Between Christchurch and Greymouth
This entry was posted on 1/7/2007 11:27 PM and is filed under New Zealand.
Here we are in Christchurch ready to start our journey
to Greymouth. The train had a fun open-air observation car that
we went out onto from time to time - here's what it looked like...
and inside the train...
There were nineteen tunnels that we went through on our journey, and
this is what things looked like when we were going through one....
The people across from us were from Australia, and we had a lovely long visit with them on the way.
The scenery was lovely and quite varied. We went through flat farming country with lots of sheep and cows.
As we headed up towards Arthurs Pass, the lupine and other wildflowers
became more and more plentiful, with beautiful lakes and snow-capped
peaks...
And the most spectacular stretch was going through the river
gorge. Here we are crossing one of the many viaducts and
bridges...
And of course, you know who we left the driving to...
Once in Greymouth, we hired a car (they don't say 'rented' here), and drove south to Hokitika.
It was Saturday and the little town was pretty darn quiet
(understatement) - but we did find they were having a Film
Festival. OK, it wasn't the SB International Film Festival, which
we are missing, but it was the Hokitika Wet West Film Festival and all
the movies shared the theme of water. We saw eight shorts and
called it good at that.
Hokitika is known for its green stone, or Jade, which is mined
nearby. Even the sidewalk pavement had inlays of this stone.
The highlight of this trip were the Pancake Rocks of Punakaiki - but they are so glorious, they deserve a blog page of their own. Check the next blog entry for a spectacular visit to these Rocks.
