Hokitika Gorge and TranzAlpine Express

We left the salmon farm just after sunrise and began the drive up to Hokitika Gorge. It was about an hour from Paringa to the gorge, not including our stop in Hokitika for gas. When we got to the gorge, it was dead; we had the whole place to ourselves because it was so early and the tour buses hadn't shown up yet. We walked to the viewpoint, but weren't able to see much. The lower suspension bridge was blocked off, so we went back through the parking lot to the other side of the trail and began the walk to the upper suspension bridge (the trail is a loop, but blocked off early on at the first viewpoint annoyingly...so you walk most of the loop and can't complete the last couple hundred meters). The walk was worth it though, the turquoise water was incredible, even in the drizzling, overcast sky. I'm not sure how deep it might go because unlike Kawarau Gorge, the water sits below the cliffs a fair bit, but that's not the same with Hokitika. The gorge looks more like a turquoise river. At the end of the trail (before turning around and retracing our steps) we were able to go down to the water which was pretty cool. The color was just mesmerizing and I could have spent a lot of time there admiring it. But, we are busy people and there is so much more to see!

Before heading off from the gorge, we boiled some water for breakfast and ate something. Then it was about an hour drive to Greymouth where we are getting the TranzAlpine Train. We decided to treat ourselves to a shower, (I mean it has been a few days and a big hike yesterday...) so we went to the rec center in the town. A few misunderstandings and an argument with a grumpy gardener later, we left because the sauna wasn't open and they weren't sure how hot the water was. We drove up the street to a campground that supposedly has showers, but there was no one in the office and the showers required $2 coins and were $4 for 6 minutes...not ideal. Tucking tail, we went back to the rec center to pay the $7.50 each to access the showers. In a surprise turn of events, she said she couldn't charge us because the water wasn't 'hot' it was body temperature (I'm not sure if this was the reason because surely she would've said that the first time we showed up...but they, not questioning the kindness).

After a much needed wash, we headed to Monteith's Brewing for a quick beer before the train. It was an unexpected, but welcome suggestion from Allan. We had the tasting tray enjoying a range of beers as well as a cider and a hard lemonade. The cider was strangely colorless, but very good. The hazy IPA was my favorite and Allan was between the porter and the lemonade.

We left Monteith's and headed to the campsite just across the bridge from the train station. We parked up and had a short walk back over to the station. We checked in and we were informed that the train was running late, so we hung around until it arrived and then boarded. The train was pretty empty, surprisingly so. Once we left the station we had our pick of carriages and ended up with a whole carriage to ourselves. The carriage had standard train seats, but large glass windows for the views and also has open air carriages so you could "go outside".

By the time we left we were running about 45 minutes late, which at the time just seemed annoying with trying to get back to Greymouth once the train arrived. What we didn't think about at the time, was it was 45 minutes less of the sunlight for the mountain views along the journey. Prior to Arthurs Pass, we had some nice mountains and some with snow. There were rolling hills and occasional small towns or lakes. We didn't go over many bridges, unlike when we're driving. About halfway into the journey, we got our dinner that we prepurchased. Turns out it's a microwave meal from their fridge 🙈 and a glass of wine. Allan lamb was definitely better than my beef, but it was better than nothing when we were feeling hungry.

When we got to the tunnel, they hooked a second locomotive up to the back of us to help push us up the steep 8.5km tunnel. When we got to the top and out of the tunnel, we were able to go outside for some fresh air. I didn't stay out long; it was cold and windy and rainy, not ideal for outside leisurely standing. Back on the train, some passengers disembarked so the train was even emptier!

The sun had gone down at this point and it got dark pretty quickly. Allan encouraged me to go out to the blustery open air car to see the last light leave the sky. It was beautiful with the snowy mountains and easier to see them from outside rather than the inside with the glare on the window. The rest of the journey we could only see the shadowy outline of mountains and hills, but at least most of the mountains were behind us and it was mainly small towns we were going through on the last bit to Christchurch.

Once we arrived in Christchurch, we were quick off the train and straight into an Uber to the airport to pick up our relocation. As much as I didn't want to do the 3 hour drive back to Greymouth, at least it wasn't costing us anything with the relocation. The drive was on the same road back through the mountains. I'm sure in the daylight it would be a great drive, but we were just focused on staying awake on the winding mountain roads.

We got back to Greymouth ok and used the out of hours key drop for Hertz, which was handy because it meant we could shoot off in the morning. We got back to the camper just after midnight and got ready for bed. We have a busy morning ahead of us with an early wake up well before the sun planned in order to get to pancake rocks and the ferry in time.Read more