Greymouth

We left Hokitika after a late breakfast at Stellas and drove the 30 mins to Greymouth - very grey and very dead on a Sunday! We dropped the car, signed in luggage at the station and then tried to find something to do - so coffee, sit, wander around the local market, sit, walk along the warf, have lunch, sit and finally boarding time at 13.50! We should have stayed longer in Hokitika as there was absolutely NOTHING to do in Greymouth!!!
The Trans Alpine is one of the world's great train journeys, transversing the Southern alps between Greymouth and Christchurch from the Tasman Sea to the Pacific Ocean, passing through Arthur's pass national Park. En route is a sequence of dramatic landscapes, from a lake fringed with cabbage trees, beech-forested river valleys, an 8.5 km tunnel ( where you are in the dark with no connections and no card machine only cash to pay at the cafe car), over via ducts and through smaller tunnels, through narrow alpine gorges and then finally to the flat, alluvial planes of Canterbury. Stops were made at a few place to pick up passengers and drop people off, the main one being Arthur's Pass, 737 metres above sea level. The 4 hr 30 mins journey is unforgettable - even though it was grey in Greymouth the sun soon came out and continued for the rest of the journey.
We arrived in Christchurch about 6.30 pm and shared a shuttle bus with a number of fellow travellers. Again our driver was a character who hailed us with information stories and anecdotes while trying to negotiate the ever changing roadworks to the various drop-off points - we saw other areas and art works in the town that we hadn't seen on our first visit!
Eventually arriving at the hotel at 7.00 pm, we booked in, booked a table for dinner at 7.30 pm and Trev did his back in having a shower! Just made the dinner booking and then worried if he'd be able to get out of bed in the morning for our early start at the airport!Read more