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Published: January 23rd 2018
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The beast of an engine for our journey.Today was another early start, with a 7.30 taxi pick up to go to Christchurch station and catch our first train of the holiday, the excitingly named Tranzalpine Express for a coast to coast journey across the South Island. So, in the words of Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas in the 1965 hit (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David), today we will be completing the 'full set of transport' on this trip; today we will have done.........Trains and Boats and Planes!.
The Tranzalpine Express runs from Christchurch on the east coast to the small town of Greymouth on the west coast, a total of 139 miles across the Canterbury Plains and the Southern Alps (including the alpine earthquake fault line) and said to be one of the epic train journeys of the world. We arrived at the station and while Tim checked us in, I went out on to the platform where a train was standing and asked a lady guard 'if this was the correct train', to which she replied, 'this is the ONLY train my dear!'.
Before we left the UK, we had been warned that the train was rather old and a bit dilapidated,
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.........our carriage. but I'm pleased to report that's no longer the case and the rolling stock was all renewed about 4 years ago. Each carriage has decent size windows to take in the views and although we were in the last car of the train, you could walk through to a buffet car and further on to an open-sided carriage, where you could get an uninterrupted view for taking snaps. However, this standing-room only carriage got very busy and we found it easier to take photos through our window or the vestibule windows. The train also provided headsets for a commentary at key points of the journey, to make sure you didn't miss anything and in multiple languages, if you fancied passing the time by swotting up your mandarin!
The trip was scheduled to last four and a half hours, but ended up being just over five, as a result of speed restrictions on parts of the line, due to possible buckling of the track caused by excessively hot weather! As you can see, excuses of this sort don't only occur on railways in the UK! Incidentally, the name 'Express' takes a bit of a liberty, with the average speed only
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An early morning nap for our girls! being around 28 mph! BUT, that is pretty much where the similarity to most of the UK rail network ends - this truly is an epic journey!
And to show just how epic it was...........Mandy and Sue decided to celebrate with an early journey nap! But not for long, the train winds through scene after scene of stunning beauty and snoozing simply isn't an option - there's simply too much to miss. And what's more, the journey definitely had an international feel and not only from the variety of nationalities on board. We passed through scenery reminiscent of the rolling countryside of England, the Great Plains of the USA, the Everglades of Florida and, of course, the mountains of Switzerland. But, I really should stop comparing NZ to other countries; New Zealand IS New Zealand and a mighty fine country it is too!
The journey had a small number of stops to pick up and drop off, plus one 10 minute halt at a place called Arthur's Pass, named after Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson, a surveyor who in 1864, was the first man to discover a navigable route through the Southern Alps to the west coast of NZ.
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Some of the scenery....... We were able to get off the train here and stretch our legs and take a few outside snaps. One other interesting feature of the journey is that it climbs from sea level in Christchurch to a peak point of about 800 metres, before falling back to sea level at Greymouth. It passes through a number of tunnels, including one 8km tunnel which is so steep that a second engine joins the back of the train, to help push it up the hill!
Although it was 5 hours long, the time seemed to fly by (or perhaps that should be 'train by'!) and all too soon, we were disembarking at Greymouth, a small town of around 12,000 people (including the immediate surrounds) and here's an amazing fact.......Greymouth accounts for 40% of the total population on the west coast of the South Island, meaning that the total population of that west coast is LESS THAN HALF THAT of my home town of Leighton Buzzard!!
We picked up our next hire car (the same model Toyota Prado, although white this time) and then headed south to our next stop of Franz Josef, about 100 miles away. This was a relatively
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........some more........ straight forward drive down the coast road and one good thing about having a small population.......there aren't many cars on the road, even in the height of summer.
We arrived at the small town of Franz Josef around 4pm and our lovely accommodation called Glenfern Villas and were checked in by owner Fern (her name is a complete coincidence!!) to our two bedroom villa......yes, the Kilborans are sharing the accommodation this time! And absolutely lovely it was too, in a fabulous setting, nestled in the mountains. There were probably a dozen or so villas on the site and I suspect that the view out of our patio doors at the rear, was probably the best of the lot. The property also had a couple of Alpacas on site, which Mandy and Sue were very happy to go off and feed, while Tim and I caught up on a few zzzzzz's!
We were slightly on the edge of town, but Fern recommended five particular restaurants, all of whom would send out a car to pick us up and drop us home later, which was perfect - no designated driver required!! We chose a place called The Landing and had
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............and yet more! a terrific meal - massive portions! Franz Josef was always intended to be a one-nighter to break our journey down to Queenstown, but if we had our time again, we would definitely stop at least two nights here; it's a really lovely little town and there is so much to explore in the area. But, for us, an epic train journey was over and tomorrow we have an epic road journey down to our last stop in NZ, of Queenstown.
Franz Josef to Queenstown is about 240 miles (including a couple of planned detours) and about 5 hours driving time. Yes, there are some winding mountain roads, but really not that many and certainly nothing scary and the driving is pretty easy, particularly if you are sharing the task - all four of us took a turn. BUT, the driving isn't the hard part about this trip; it's the huge number of things to do and see on the way that take the time. We left Glenfern at 9am and arrived in Queenstown at 8pm.............11 hours later, tired but exhilarated!
To cover everything we saw and did would take up a book in itself, but this is one
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The sign says it all...... of the great road journeys in the world and for anyone considering a trip to NZ, this trip is an absolute must. It would have been possible to shorten it a little by stopping at the town of Wanaka for a night, but as Wanaka is only about 40 miles away from Queenstown, we elected to press on and have a longer stay in one place.
We knew that the first third of the journey to a very small (but memorable) place called Haast (pronounced like 'fast') would be long because we had a number of significant stops on the way.........and boy, was it long?!
After a short stop to fill up with fuel (there would be no more filling stations until we reached Wanaka!), our first stop was just down the road to see the Franz Josef Glacier, a 7.5 mile glacier, that 10,000 years ago stretched as far as the Tasman Sea,12 miles away. The glacier does advance and retreat each year depending on the amount of snowfall at high altitude, with the last major advance being almost one mile in 2008, although since 2010 it has retreated quite rapidly, said to be due to climate
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.......and this sign too. change. There are a number of trails to get a view of the glacier, with the trail that gets closest being about a 90 minute round trip. On the basis that we wanted to get to Queenstown TODAY, we opted for the shorter (but much steeper) 30 minute roundtrip to Sentinel Rock, which was a perfectly good vantage point, for some terrific views.
Next stop, was about 15 miles further on the SH6 at Fox Glacier, to try and get a view of another similar length glacier, fed from the same high altitude snow and ice field as Franz Josef. Unfortunately, the cloud cover had come down and probably obscured the view. The girls stayed in the car, rather than walk the 20 minute round trip to the lookout point which Tim and I did........the girls were right, of course!
A few miles off the SH 6 from Fox was Lake Matheson, where a 45 minute round trip walk takes you to the Jetty lookout spot, also known as Reflection Point because of the idyllic view and reflection that can be seen of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman in the lake during perfect weather. Unfortunately, although the cloud
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Not a bad place to stop at the lights! cover had broken a little and we got a glimpse of the two mountains........no reflection!! But, all was not lost; we had a coffee and bun and Sue spotted a shop and decided to buy a pink mac.......perhaps she was concerned that we might lose her in the massive crowds around and about (NOT!!), but don't worry Sue, we'll shake you off somehow! In fact, we were starting to get a bit concerned that the weather was going to spoil this trip, but no need to worry, a few miles further on, the cloud cleared and the weather was clear blue skies from then on.
Sue was now driving and after a quick stop at a salmon farm to feed the salmon, we pulled off at Lake Paringa for a couple of snaps (very pretty) and as we turned off the main road (carefully, I might add) a couple of cyclists pulling out at the same moment, motioned for us to slow down as if we were going too fast! Flippin cheek and as we passed them a few minutes later on the road, the temptation to give them a quick shove on their 'cheeks' was almost overwhelming! We
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.......I guess that's enough Tranzalpine views now! didn't.
A few miles further on, we were back by the coast and we stopped for a 'late picnic lunch' at the majestic Knights Point Lookout, with yet more terrific views over the sea and rugged coastline - the fact that an American dog (or, at least, a dog owned by some of our American Cousins), decided that a spot right next to our picnic table, was an ideal place to test its owners' 'poo bag' skills (large bag necessary), did not spoil the moment!
About 20 miles further on, at almost exactly 4.30, we finally reached Haast and the start of the Haast Pass through the Alps and after seven and a half hours on the road! We were clearly getting delirious by this point, trying to come up with humorous comments about the journey so far, which can best be summarised with the pithy, 'At last, at half past, we passed the vast, Haast Pass and we were aghast!!' Little things, as they say! In addition, a sign for 'Ship Creek' which we saw shortly after, 'almost' seemed to sum up our state of mind perfectly!!
As we turned due south again on the SH
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The view from our patio..... 6, we were on the homeward stretch to Queenstown, although still with. miles to go! As we drove through the Southern Alps from Haast, the scenery became even more stunning, with picture postcard views around every corner. Before we left home, we had identified three particular stops to look out for, namely Thunder Creek Falls, Fantail Falls and Blue Pools, all of which are a 'must see', yet all three are reached from modest stop offs on the side of the road. Thunder Creek Falls is reached following a 10 minute walk from the roadside and is a fabulous 100 foot drop into a crystal clear river; if you're so inclined you can paddle out into the river.
Fantail Falls, we expected to be much less impressive, but how wrong we were! These falls also drop about 100 feet, but as they fall, they fan out quite widely, hence the name. The really amazing sight here are the hundreds of piles of rocks (cairns) along the river bed, left by previous travellers; what happens to these piles of rocks when the river is in full flow during the winter, I really don't know. Also, one other view which we
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.......and a bit more arty this time! didn't quite expect was a couple of butt naked bathers in a pool, part way up the waterfall and no..........we didn't zoom in on our cameras to take a peak and any snaps which featured them, were purely accidental!
Blue Pools was about a 15 minute walk from the road, across a very wobbly suspension bridge to a series of pools (more green in colour than blue, but still crystal clear) and fed by a river, with quite a few people paddling and some jumping in from another pretty high bridge. Another great spot.
That was the end of our planned stops, but there were lots more picture stops on the way, including the stunning Lake Wanaka and the even more stunning Lake Hawea. Over the years, we have been very lucky to see some truly inspirational views of natural beauty, from Spring River Wyoming with the Grand Teton mountains in the background (my all time favourite) to the Rockies in both Canada and the US and the Samaria Gorge in Crete, but these views in NEW Zealand are amongst the very best! But hold on......perhaps the best is yet to come!
On leaving Wanaka, there are
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The alpacas wanting to be fed! two routes down to Queenstown; continue on the SH 6 or the shorter, but more twisting, Crown Range Road, passing through the Crown Range mountains. This road can often be closed during the winter, but was no problem during the summer. The first two thirds are pretty uneventful, although the little village of Cardrona (which resembles a western town) is a nice feature. The road then climbs through Crown Range, before reaching the peak point and then, lo and behold, the first sight of Queenstown comes into view....and boy oh boy, what a view!!! I really cannot describe it other than you have the low rise 'metropolis' of the town and its suburbs, on the edge of the beautiful Lake Wakatipu and the whole area surrounded by mountains of sheer majesty! The pictures really don't do it justice unfortunately as the light was fading fastvby now, but trust me, it was a view to die for! I would highly recommend this route from Wanaka to Queenstown, if the weather is good.
We pulled up at our hotel, the Millennium, to find we had all been upgraded to an Executive Suite each and extremely nice they were too. Whether they
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The glacier from Sentinel Rock.... knew of the journey we had had and took pity on us or not, I don't know, but we certainly weren't going to argue. Four nights in an Executive Suite is just what the doctor ordered!
A quick walk into town and a pizza and couple of beers later, we were ready for bed! An absolutely amazing couple of days and an incredible couple of journeys. This country just gets better and better.
I am actually writing this entry on a coach trip to Milford Sound a few days later and as far as views are concerned, the truth is, we hadn't seen anything yet, but more of that next time. In the meantime, today's quiz. I suppose I could ask something silly like 'how many times have I used the words stunning, amazing, beautiful or incredible in my posts so far?' But the number is clearly bound to be 'incredible or amazing', so it would be pointless. Instead, I just have one totally random question, which I heard the other day and I think is a great quiz question. It goes like this:
What word that is a plural, becomes singular by adding the
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.......and in close up..... letter 's'?
That's it folks.
TTFN
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