TranzAlpine Experience

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Alister drove the three of us to the city. Alison was taking the train over to Greymouth and Mom and I were taking the shuttle. This train is called the TranzAlpine Pass and is the prettiest train ride of the three we have taken. The first one was from Auckland to Wellington. The second was Picton to Christchurch. This one (which Mom and I took it on the way back) was from Greymouth to Christchurch.

Mom and I waited for the shuttle. It was late. We were standing in the cold. We were shivering. Finally, the ride came. We were the first people to get checked in, but he couldn't figure out my ticket. I did not get this ticket online, but through the i-site. He said he would have to do me last since he couldn't figure it out. It was annoying, but at least he figured it out and we were able to board. The views were so beautiful of the Southern Alps. We had 1/2 hour break in Arther's Pass after driving just 2 hours. Basically, it was a stop so he could smoke a pack of cigarettes. It was gross. There was snow everywhere, so we were freezing.

There were Kea birds outside who were knocking over peoples' drinks and even tried to fly away with a cell phone. They were quite mean.

When we got to Greymouth, we tried to go to King's Domain Walk. We had to go uphill all the way. There were four lookout points, but we only had time for two of them. We saw the lookout for Greymouth city centre, and the Greymouth city. We ate lunch and just enjoyed the sights. Mom found a stick and wrote "Karsie was here" on the bench. Then we walked down to the train station and found Alison.

We checked in and tried to get seats together. The lady said it wasn't possible, so we boarded the train. We were on two completely different sections of the train. We couldn't see each other at all, because there was a blockade that divided the train. The annoying thing was that there was an open pair of seats the whole time that were right next to us. Alison said the same thing on her side of the train. We were in the observation car most of the time anyway. It was so beautiful. The train announcer was cute and always gave little snippets of his life. He also announced when the best views were coming up.

We were ushered in the train car at one point, due to a 15 minute tunnel that would be horrible to experience. After the train ride, we went home and had a lovely dinner with Anne and Alister.