The Tranzalpine Railroad from Christchurch to the little west coast hamlet of Greymouth is rated one of the world's top scenic train trips. It departs Christchurch and winds through the Southern Alps, over Arthur's Pass and down into the dense rain forests of South Island's west coast. Trip takes about 4 1/2 hours with brief stops at settlements along the way. The coaches feature large panoramic windows and there is also an outdoor viewing car.Our trip out began in wet weather and we didn't make it to the viewing car so the majority of photos are from the return trip in the next post.
It was hard to find a guidebook that didn't look down on Greymouth. On their advice we rented a car to get out of town, but Greymouth was nice enough and had several decent restaurants and shops.
Renting the car was a great move though because the west coast was fantastic. The rain forests looked practically prehistoric and covered massive hills right down to huge rugged beaches.
We grabbed lunch on the way out of town and headed north to enjoy the scenery. Our brand new Corolla felt like a sports car after the RV and was fun to drive. Andy quickly fell asleep and we continued north along the coast road so he could get a good nap.
We ended up in the town of Westport, which upon review was way too far north. We high tailed down to the one "must see" along the route - The Pancake Rocks and then on to our bed and breakfast and dinner with the Valentine's Day "crowds" in Greymouth.
Tranzalpine in the scenery it is known for
Zach, being the #1 Thomas the Train fan, was very excited about the trip
Arthur's Pass at a little over 3,000 ft is the highest pass in the Southern Alps and straddles the Great Divide. We were given about ten minutes to take a look around and grab some pictures.
Our view driving north to Westport - endless empty beaches bordered by rainforest. Amazing
More of the same. Population of the entire west coast is only about 40,000.
We were told to be on the look out for the Blue Penguin. We did look, didn't see any and when we asked a few locals they said they had never seen any either. Might be a tourism ploy. Maybe the sign is to spread the illusion.
Inexplicably we took a wrong turn leaving Westport (particularly embarrassing considering there is only one intersection out of town). This cost us about a half hour, but the road followed a pretty mountain river. 
Punakaiki Park, better known as Pancake Rocks to the Haoles, is a series of limestone formations along the ocean
The limestone gets eaten away by ocean and weather and leaves a pattern of stacked pancakes in the rocks
Some of the more dramatic erosion leaves large natural bridges and many blowholes
View from the park trail looking north along the coast
No comments:
Post a Comment