Coast to Coast

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There aren’t that many train routes here and one of the few in the South Island is the trip through Arthurs Pass between Greymouth (on the west coast) and Christchurch (in the east). I’d planned to bus down to Greymouth and do the train journey after returning my car to Nelson but having met someone who said that the road ran almost parallel with the train I decided to save some pennies and time and drive instead. And it was a beautiful journey - lots of driving through river valleys with snow capped mountains in the background. ahhhh.

Eventually I made my way to Hanmer Springs for the night, a spa resort on the Lewis Pass. After about 7 hours of driving today I seriously could have done with a spa but arrived to late and had to leave to early to get the car back to Nelson :0( Instead I had to make do with reminiscing about home over a bottle of vino with a guy that I met at the hostel who came from the same wee town that I grew up in! Small world!

From Hanmer Springs I had another long day back across Lewis Pass (which I thought was prettier than Arthurs Pass) and then finally I made it over to the Nelson Lakes!! They were as nice as I'd been told and I'll definately have to come back to do the 4 day walk.... at this rate I think I'll be walking for most of the summer!

Next stop Collingwood, to start my fist ‘job’......

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