The Road Not Taken

So, today I got up and would you believe it, not a cloud in the sky! Franz Josef welcomed me in all it’s glory this morning, in fact I could say I saw Franz Josefs morning glory…but I won’t…

I was on the next leg of my Intercity bus ride up to Greymouth with the intention of catching the train to Christchurch the next day. I find out while on the bus that the bus gets to Greymouth 30 minutes before the train departs for Christchurch so I go to the travel centre at Ross where we stop for a while and book the train.

Yippee! I did not want to spend the night at Greymouth anyway having just survived one Friday night there some time ago (where Myself and Nelly ripped up the dance floor of the railway tavern). So here I am now back in Christchurch after a lovely journey across the southern alps from Greymouth to Christchurch. I thoroughly recommend it should you come here. We lucked out with the weather though which made the trip one to remember.

The following are pictures of the train journey and also some from Franz Josef.

Stopping at a beach next to the Tasman Sea on the way to Franz Josef (looks cold but it was nice!)

Franz Josef at 9am this morning

Stopping at Arthurs Pass on the way to Christchurch

Shortly after leaving Arthurs pass

There is a bridge in this one…

A river runs through it

Don’t stick your head out too far, there’s a tunnel approaching

The southern alps

This one was taken from my seat, no viewing deck for me, no siree…

One for the road

The trip lasted around four and a half hours but did not seem long at all really. The last section of the Canterbury plains are very flat and gave me time to tune out and listen to some music and not “concentrate” on the scenery, boy does it tire you out looking at beauty.

I must add that the bus driver we had up to Greymouth talked pretty much the whole way. He had some interesting things to say. It does make a difference when you get a local giving you the low down and with some good humor too.

If I can change my flight to Australia I will have two more weeks here and if the weather keeps up it will be a bloomin’ good time. I doubt the weather will co-operate somehow.

I trated myself to a single room in a hostel tonight. Still the same old noise outside the room so it doesn’t really make that much difference. I think the two nights before I fly to Oz I will check into a hotel and splash out in celebration of my time in NZ slumming it in it’s hostels. In fact they have been pretty good overall. Very few complaints. I do miss my own space though.

It is approaching 10pm here at Vadal on Cathedral Square. I am tempted to go to the Irish pub “The Bog” but may get some wine instead and see what’s going on back at the hostel.

Oh, the Irish bar in Queenstown Pog Mahones is taken from the Irish “Pog Ma Thoin” which means “Kiss My Arse”, excellent…I did not know that until my last visit there. :0).

Until the next time, this is Mork signing out, Nanu Nanu…

Tags: New Zealand

This entry was posted on Monday, December 6th, 2004 at 9:42 am and is filed under New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.