Winding down in Akaroa
Friday, June 8th, 2007This week has been one of my slower weeks since I have been in New Zealand. I spent a day walking around Christchurch exploring the cathedral and the surrounding area. On Monday, I woke up to a beautiful day and caught a shuttle to the train station. At 8:15, I boarded the Tranzalpine Train for the 4.5 hour trip to Greymouth which is on the west coast of the South Island. I found my assigned seat and found that I would be doing the trip backwards. The car that I was in was arranged in groups of four seats with a table in the middle. As I was travelling alone, I was relegated to a table at the end of the car that had one chair (facing the wrong way). At least I didn’t have to fight for a window. The train left Christchurch and made it’s way through the farmland which now occupies the Cantebury Plains. We soon left this behind and began the climb through the Southern Alps to Arthur’s Pass which is the highest point (about 900 meters) on the trip. The train made it’s way up by following several river gorges. The route consisted of four viaducts and 16 tunnels. The river gorges were bordered by sheep farms and the surrounding snow capped Alps. The landscape was full of brown grass and low covered trees as the mountains block most of the rain from getting to this area. I spent my time looking out the window and eating a chicken curry that I had bought from the café car. At Arthur’s Pass everyone got out of the train and snapped pictures or had the much needed cigarette. We then reboarded the train and began the descent to Greymouth. The train made most of the descent through an 8.5 km tunnel which is the third longest in New Zealand. We exited the tunnel and were in a very different landscape. The bright blue sky gave way to one that was full of clouds that had stacked up against the mountains. The vegetation was very green and thick. [read on]
cjun