The Chronicles of NZ: The TranzAlpine (Written 1/9/07)

Another day of vacation, another early wakeup. I got up at about 6am so that I could make sure I had everything I needed for my big train ride. For the first time on this trip I had cereal for breakfast and it was good – a nice change of pace from oatmeal and nothing for breakfast. I woke Josh up at 7am and he drove me to the train station – it was a bit hidden away so it's no wonder people rarely take the train now. Even though the train left at 8:15am, I arrived at the train station at 7:15am and quickly received my boarding pass. It was a good thing I arrived when I did because no less than 5 minutes everyone else arrived – there was literally a line going out the door.

So the name of the train I was on is called the TranzAlpine and it is considered one of the great train rides of the world. This was also my first cross country train ride before now the only type of train taken is the L in Chicago. So this train ride was definitely going to be a more classy affair compared to the L. We departed from Christchurch at 8:15am and the ride to Greymouth, on the west coast of NZ, took about four hours. During those four hours I saw some simply amazing vistas – it was quite a contrast to go from plains (Christchurch), to mountains (Southern Alps) and conclude in forest (West Coast/Greymouth). It was during this train ride that I saw why Peter Jackson chose this place to tape King Kong – some of the places I saw looked like they haven't been touched for years. My camera was working overtime taking as many pictures as I could.

When we finally arrived at Greymouth, I only had an hour to check out the city. It was actually a lot larger than I thought – I was expecting a sleepy little town with nothing major in it but it turned out to be a bustling, but small town. And just like every small town in America, there's a Warehouse (i.e. Walmart).

One hour later I got back on the train and began the journey from Greymouth to Christchurch. The trip is basically split into two halves – the west side and east side of the Southern Alps. In the middle is a section called the Otira tunnel which is the longest tunnel in the southern hemisphere and takes 20 minutes to get through. So I had plenty of pictures from the west side of the tunnels, so for that section back I took a nice little nap – taking full advantage of the rocking motion. Once we cross back over to the east side of the Alps, I went back out to the viewing carriage (which is a special cabin for taking pics that has no windows) and took even more pictures.

The enjoyment of this train ride depends greatly on the weather, you don't get a refund if the weather sucks and since I only had one day in Christchurch the weather had to be perfect. Guess what – it was! The skies were nice and clear on the trip to Greymouth and even though the day started off cold it actually got warmer as the afternoon rolled around. On the journey back to Christchurch it started to rain a bit and the wind picked up but it was nothing that was too bad (didn't stop my picture taking). In fact, the weather only got worse once we arrived back in Christchurch i.e. perfect timing.

After Josh and Kevin picked me up at the railway station, we headed back to Ian's and Jill's for another great meal – this time lasagna and veggies. I've had more vegetables in the past two days than I had in the last year! Ian also told me that Christchurch is suppose to have rain for the next few days so I got the perfect day to take a train ride.

My grandmother on my dad's side use to love taking the train everywhere – she absolutely did not like flying. I never really understood why she liked taking the train so much until this trip. You get to see a part of the country that is inaccessible by foot or car (and/or would take too long to get to) and if you went by plane it wouldn't be quite as awe-inspiring. I would easily see her in the seat across from me just looking amazed at the beauty that can only be provided by a train ride. It took a while but now I understand.

*Side Note*

-           The TranzApline is one of 3 scenic rail tours operated by Tranz Scenic in NZ. The other 2 are the Overlander (goes between Wellington and Auckland) and the Tranz Coastal (goes between Picton and Christchurch).

-           With this train ride I have/will travel by car, boat, train and plane within NZ – I've got this place covered.

-           There's a town called Otira along the route and the staff told us an interesting tale about the city. It seems some people bid $75,000 on a hotel in the city of Otira but what they were really bidding on was the town itself. They now own all the homes in the town of Otira and rent them out as summer homes to people.

-           In half a day I traveled over 600km and went from the Pacific Ocean to the Tasman Sea.