TranzAlpine Train

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Being hosted by retired hoteliers Vicky and Oliver over the last two days was a marvelous way to begin our NZ travels as they devoted their time to showing us unique aspects of their country. We are enjoying the pleasantness and polite behavior of this land down under. Tipping is the exception here as salaries appear to be adequate, although not excessive. We‘ve found the prices of consumer goods higher than expected although the price of fuel is about $1.50 compared to our $3 US price tag. SUVs appear nonexistent as the English tradition of smaller vehicles prevails. The local beers and wines are very tasty as is the lamb and other specialties. In the hotel’s exercise room I was pleased when I stepped on the scales until I realized it was in kilograms, about half that of pounds. But then my speed on the treadmill was twice what I’m used to (it was in kilometers).
Our Swain Tours driver picked us up at our centre city Crown Plaza Hotel for the drive to the rail station. New Zealand Rail runs this special TranzAlpine train across the South Island. We crossed the Canterbury (flat) Plains before ascending through the gorges of the Waimakariri River across 3 viaducts (trestles), through 18 tunnels to cross the Southern Alps and then descend (in the rain) through rain forests to Greymouth on the west coast, a total of 223 km in 4½ hours. We’ve learned that the number of sheep in NZ has dropped from 100,000 to 30,000 and that Hereford and Black Angus cattle produce a breed black in color with a white face.
Picking up our rental car we didn’t have time to visit the Monteith’s Brewery but did sample their product when we arrived at our evening destination. Traveling down the coastal Route 6 we drove through several scenic preserves and national parks while admiring the lakes, mountains in the distance and the rain forest varieties of fern, trees, etc. Our destination is an upscale B&B (more like a small inn) called Westwood Lodge. A wonderfully well-appointed but rustic accommodation ala log cabin structure, our room’s bathroom is immense and includes double sinks, shower and separate bath tub but matches the king sized bed. Our hostess’ escorted tour pointed out the lounge with fireplace and picture windows looking out on the mountains plus the dining room, site of the full breakfast tomorrow. She even welcomed us with cookies and fruit. Our evening meal consisted of salads and adult beverages at a pub look alike called the Alice May. Franz Josef reminds us of New Hampshire in the summer with all the college age, athletically inclined “kids” shopping in the market for the usual fare before hiking to the mountains or glacier tomorrow.,
RVing here is a little different in that they drive smaller motor homes called class B’s or C’s, vans or small cab over units; a wonderful way to see this marvelous land. Unfortunately a new form of camper van without internal toilets is causing problems because their occupants park wherever they want regardless of sanitary facilities and leave their remnants for others to clean up. “No camping” signs are the result, unfortunately. We haven’t seen our style of large Class A motorhomes here but are told 5th wheels are used.
Franz Josef Glacier
Awaking on Wednesday to bright sunshine (dawn comes at 0600 after getting dark at 2100 - 9 PM) we enjoyed a filling breakfast and conversation with a retired Royal Navy couple who shared travel experiences with us including a previous visit to Machu Picchu. Our tour today was with Guide Jason to the foot of Franz Josef Glacier in Westland National Park. We learned that Explorer Haast named the glacier after Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph who just happened to fund his expedition and rewarded him on his return. It is one of the few glaciers so formed that you can explore its crevasses and caves. We chose to view from in front of the glacier’s toe, marveling at the flowing river from the runoff. Jason retrieved a chunk of the ice, showing its clarity, similar to our Alaska experiences but different from the cloudy South American “chunk”. Apparently the creation of a glacier, packed snow pressurized by its own weight to ice and gravity forced movement downhill, creates different colors and clarity of ice depending on the density, the amount of stone picked up and other natural factors. A glacier doesn’t actually retreat, as it’s constantly moving downhill, but warmer temperatures tend to melt it faster causing the volume to “shrink” and the toe to melt uphill faster. Each summer a glacier is smaller, being reinstated in the winter snows. NZ has a large amount of snow as the Westerlies (winds) cross drier and hotter Australia, pick up moisture in the Tasman Sea and dump the moisture on the western NZ shore as it’s squeezed by the Southern Alps. The NZ glaciers are on the western slope of the Alps. Now you know why Alaskan and Chilean glaciers are different – they don’t get the high volume of moisture as before and therefore are now shrinking more than those in NZ.
With strong rain arriving and spoiling the views, we retreated to our B&B after a hearty lunch of lamb and stacked corn fritters. The TV highlighted a national cricket match and a CNN interview of Barbara Walters sandwiched in between views of Cairo under siege, not exciting stuff. Earlier in the week Oliver had responded to my query of how cricket was played with a comment that he’d found it takes a week to explain the game to Americans immersed in baseball. I agreed. Tomorrow we continue our southward trek through, reportedly, some of the South Island’s most spectacular scenery. We're hopeful that the rains will let up a little. We're curious as to what impact the Australian cyclone will have on our port calls later this month. It is interesting to note the amount of recycling and conservation that appears to be a national effort here, much like some of the Central and South American countries but is quite different from the U.S. NZ, especially, has no billboards and little if any trash on the roadways, plus all the cities are clean.
Next we'll drive down the West Coast to Queenstown.

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