The Trans Alpine


I woke up in my wonderful Crown Plaza room at 6am expecting the breakfast that I ordered the night before.

I woke up in my wonderful Crown Plaza room at 6am expecting the breakfast that I ordered the night before. I hung the description on my front door, but breakfast never arrived. I took a shower, and still no breakfast. I chalked it up to poor customer service and called the front desk to have someone come grab my bags so that I could store them in hotel over the day. After I told the bellboy what had happened about breakfast, I received a call about 5 minutes later. They said that they had one order that had been picked up the night before that had no name or room number just the order. Boy I felt smart! They said they could send it up right away but by that point it was too late the shuttle was downstairs.
I arrived at the train station at 8:00am to catch my TransAlpine Train which would take me from Christchurch on the east coast to the Greymouth across the country on the north west coast of the South Island. The train would cross through the New Zealand Alps, which on a geological time frame where quite new, and still rising. The mid-point of the train would be our stop at the alpine village of Arthur's Pass. Once we arrived in Greymouth we would have an hour for lunch and then we would start the train ride back.
The inside of the train was not well represented by the outside. The outside was poorly painted, and rusty but the inside was very comfortable and relatively luxurious compared to the fare I was paying. In the middle of the train there was an observation car which separated the luxurious cars from the more typical economy class coaches. The train trip lasted about 4 hour each way. I brought a half consumed bottle of Pinot Noir which I later found out was against the rules. I ended up sitting next to two ladies who over the course of the trip turned out to be very nice. In fact I ended up sharing my bottle of Pinot Noir with them.
Once the I arrived in Greymouth, with little time I ate lunch at the first place decent I found. And then took a few pictures of the Grey River... hence Greymouth!!!! The return trip was pretty much the same thing only this time I was in the back of the train with actually was better. The guide who talked about each town was a lot funnier, and kept picking on the Australian's due to the New Zealand vs Australia rugby match that was taking place that night. Overall it was a beautiful train trip, and one that I would do again if I ever come back to this part of the world.



(Sorry some of this photos are blurry, trains do not make the most stable shooting platforms)


(The Grey River on the west coast of New Zealand)


Once I arrived back in Christchurch at the Crown Plaza, I lugged by far too heavy backpack, computer bag, and a bag of dirty laundry to the hostel I was staying at that night. When i arrive I struck up a conversation with a group of 3 brits and a german. When I asked them if they were going to watch the game they said they were just getting ready to leave. I ended up going with them to the largest sports bar I have seen in my life. In fact it was a converted movie theater. So when we arrived apart from the dozen or so TVs showing the game, it was also broadcast up on the old movie screen. The place was packed, and when New Zealand one the game, I thought my eardrums would explode. After leaving my new friends I hunted down a chinese restaurant and took my fried rice back to the hostel.

Posted: Sun - August 17, 2003 at 09:31 PM        

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