Buses and Ferries and Trains Oh My!
Trip Start
May 13, 2006
1
5
11
Trip End
Jun 20, 2006
Greymouth, New Zealand
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Greetings from Greymouth -- a tiny little nowhere-place on the west coast of the beautiful South Island! I have lots of updates for you from my last posting, so here goes...
On the 25th, I travelled south by bus to Wellington. It was rainy along Lake Taupo but as we ascended to the Desert Highway, it cleared up beautifully -- SUN!!! This couldn't have happened at a better time, as we had a beautiful view of the three frequently-active volcanoes -- Ruapehu, Tongariro and the Mount Doom volcano from the Lord of the Rings. Theyw ere snow-capped and spectacular! Further along the way to Wellington, we stopped at a roadside stand and bought tamarillo-flavoured ice cream (freaky -- tasted like turnips!).
Wellington is in a beautiful location alongside the ocean, with many many huge hills and inlets, and we were lucky to see a pod of killer whales swimming in one of the bays as we drove by. Wellington reminds me a lot of San Francisco, with its many victorian-style houses perched on the steep hillsides. Anyway, I'm very sad that I only had one day to spend there =(
On the 26th -- good weather again! -- I left bright and early for the ferry station, where I took a 3-hour ferry trip across the Cook Strait to the South Island. Before docking in Picton, the ferry goes through the beautiful Marlborough Sounds, where I saw a school of dolphins, and took a tonne of stunning photos of the landscape.
At Picton, I boarded the TranzScenic train for a 5-hour trip south to Christchurch. The train takes a beautiful route down the east coast, and I frequently saw the foggy waves on one side of me, and snow-capped peaks on the other. The rail trip was not uneventful, though, as we shared our car with a whole crew of rugby fans who were off to Christchurch to see a big game. They tried very hard to drink the train dry of beer, and definitely made the journey fun & memorable.
Also, the train had to stop for on hour along the way for repairs, as one of the engines struck a boulder from a rock slide that had fallen across the tracks. The front fender was bent in pretty badly, and they had to cut pieces of it off with a welding torch. Honestly, none of us even noticed that there was anything wrong until the train stopped. We were all fine and were on our way again soon afterwards.
Oh yeah -- on the train was a girl from Edmonton! She let me know that the Oilers finally lost to San Jose -- boo!
Today (the 27th) I left Christchurch via the TransAlpine train, which cuts a spectacular route across the southern Alps to the west coast. The journey was amazing -- I saw many snow-capped mountains, rivers, tunnels, and sub-tropical rainforests. When I reached the west coast, it was cloudy & raining, but warm.
Anyway, I am heading further south beginning tomorrow, so I am sure that I will have more top share with you in a few days. Cheers!
Chris =)
