Nelson to Greymouth to Arthur's Pass

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The bus picks us up at 7:30 am and we drive a few hours then stop for a tea break. Michael and I have been napping during this time. We have another four hours before we get to Greymouth so I get out the computer to record information in our travel journal. This makes the time go quickly and we stop about 12:30 for a quick lunch before going into Greymouth.
We are dropped at the rail station in Greymouth to catch the Tranz Alpine train to Arthur’s Pass. I ask Michael if he knows how far our motel is from the train station and he says he doesn’t, but the town can’t be that big. The town of Arthur’s Pass in Arthur’s Pass National Park is a tiny enclave of small cabins that were built in the early 1900’s to house the men working on a tunnel through the mountain to connect the east and west sides of the South Island. The tunnel is 8.5 kilometers (1 kilometer = 0.6213711 miles) or 5.28 miles and took 15 years to complete.
About two hours out of Greymouth we enter the tunnel. It now has doors that close after the train enters the tunnel so the exhaust fans are more efficient in clearing the fumes out of the tunnel. As soon as we clear the tunnel we are at the train station in Arthur’s Pass. They let all of the passengers get out for a few minutes and announce that if you are staying in Arthur’s Pass you will collect your luggage near the front of the train. As we walk to the front of the train I realize that the only luggage there is ours. We strap our backpacks on and try to pull our other bags through the gravel toward the train station. Two girls that work on the train help us get our bags through the gravel.
The train station is in the middle of nowhere. There is no town to be seen. The girls tell us to go to the white fence and take the pedestrian underground walkway. When we reach the end of the walkway the town will appear in front of us. The paving is unlevel and it is difficult for us to pull our bigger bags but we persist. When we walk out of the tunnel we see a few buildings, one of which is the DOC center. I stop to rest and stay with the bags while Michael goes to the DOC center to get information on the weather and the town. He says our motel is about 300 meters (1 meter = 3.2808398 feet) or about 985 feet, which doesn’t sound like much until you are pulling an overstuffed bag on gravel. We finally get to our motel and learn that the rooms are on the second floor so now our bags must be carried up a flight of stairs. Michael and I make a valiant attempt to not get bitchy with one another over this little snafu since everything else on the trip has gone so well.
The weather is going to be rainy tomorrow and the DOC guys don’t recommend the two-day hike we were planning in rainy weather since it requires rock hopping in a stream that fills up very quickly in rainy weather. The hike also requires good visibility since it is not well marked. To top it off, the hut we would stay in has been downgraded and now doesn’t have any heat. Keep in mind we have now traveled into the mountains and it is considerably cooler than on the beaches.
There is one small store in town that is not very well equipped and one restaurant, the Wobbly Kea. Keas are a native large parrot that can be quite a nuisance. There are signs everywhere not to feed the Keas. By this time we are not expecting much from the restaurant but it is our only choice. We go to eat and they have a more extensive menu than we expect. The food is very good and it helps to make our day much better.
We decide that we will get up tomorrow and go to the DOC center to see what day hikes we could make in rainy weather.

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