Blogs from Greymouth, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Geo: -42.4576, 171.206 The intercity bus picked me up from Yha to go to Greymouth for the Transalphine train to Christchurch and on the way we stopped at Harihari, Hokitika and Kumara junction. We arrived at the Greymouth station just when the train arrived and all the passengers were coming out. The train was delayed for 40 mins so we had to wait outside till the train was ready and finally the train took off. TranzAlpine train. The TranzAlpine is run by New Zealand train operator Kiwi Rail which runs once daily between Christchurch, Arthurs Pass, Greymouth and back passing the mountain scenery of the Southern Alps, the journey takes 4½ hours.The Seats in the train were very comfortable with clean glass windows for viewing the scenery, there were open viewing platforms to look at the ... read more

Geo: -42.4576, 171.206Today we drop off our car and board the world famous Trans Alpine Railway. This trip is often regarded to be one of the world's great train journeys for the scenery through which it passes. The journey is 223 kilometers one-way, taking about four and a half hours. There are 19 tunnels and four viaducts.We ask for a late checkout as the West Coast weather has not improved and it is bucketing down. With 4 hours to kill before we board the train we catch a cab to the Monteith Brewery, a new establishment that has an open door policy, good food, good beer and a big open fire. On arriving they have canceled the tour due to a lack of patrons so we order a beer tasting plate and some yummy tapas to ... read more

So, we were going to wake up at 6:45 to get our day going early, since the sun exists nice and early in these parts. But...Murray was in charge of the alarm clock, so it was 7:30 when the body decided to start moving around. Still in good spirit, we headed off up island to see an arch, some caves, and some rain forest. Was a great view of the ocean to start our day, and then we travelled on a 16km stretch of single land gravel, only one mini bus on it's side, good thing it was a dry day. The arch was all it was built up to be, 200 metres long of limestone, 30 metres high and 40 metres wide...and just a trickle of an iron laden stream. We found a couple of ... read more

I got up even earlier this morning with one of the other girls from my dorm who was also travelling on the magic bus (the backpackers bus tour company I'd booked to see the South Island with). We had our breakfast then went to wait for the bis to find that it was pouring it down. We stood sheltered for as long as we could then we ran out to the bus when it appeared. The bus wans't too full which meant that everyone got two seats to themselves. The itinerary for the day was Nelson to Greymouth with a few stops along the way. After only about an hour the bus driver informed us that we'd just stopped at the last traffic lights til Dunedin (pretty much the other end of the island and on ... read more

Hello! There's even less people living on the West Coast than anywhere else in NZ... Nothing much up in Greymouth, so I joined the local brewery tour. Sweet. Oli... read more