October 31, Wednesday

October 31, Wednesday     -   Happy Halloween !

Had to be up early this morning since the shuttle bus would be picking me up at 7 am.   I waited at the entrance to the motel for it to show up and the manager came out to wait with me.  The shuttle finally arrived at 7:15 and after picking up more people along the way, we arrived at the railway station.  Turns out I had been right beside it the day before, but the road leading in to it was not properly marked; and it looked like a dead end street.  

When I purchased the ticket, I had told the young lady at the Information Centre that I wanted to get off at Lake Brunner and would catch the return train from there.  When I checked in at the station however, the lady at the counter wondered why I was getting off at the Brunner Station, since she said there was nothing there.  I explained that I had seen on a brochure that you could get off at Lake Brunner and have a nice meal while looking out on the lake.  Turns out Lake Brunner is not at the Brunner station, it is at the Moana station, so she changed my ticket.

The train left on time at 8:15 and we were soon out of Christchurch and into the countryside heading for the mountains.

“The TranzAlpine train ride is considered as one of the world’s great train journeys.  Cross the fertile farmlands of the Canterbury Plains, and enjoy thrilling vistas over deep gorges as you travel alongside the ice-fed Waimakairi River.  Traverse the mighty Southern Alps, where spectacular views of the chiselled alpine landscape will take your breath away at every turn.  Descend through thick stands of native beech to the West Coast at Greymouth.”  Strangely enough, the brochure did not provide how many kilometers we covered, so I had to check it out on the internet. "223 kilometres (139 mi) one-way, taking about four and a half hours. There are 19 tunnels and four viaducts, with the Staircase Viaduct being 73 metres (240 ft) high.  The highest elevation reached is at Arthur's Pass, 739 meters above sea level (2,425 ft)"  

 Reaching the foothills of the Southern Alps

Our stop at Arthur's Pass

The scenery really got interesting once we reached the snow capped mountains. I had taken some of the pictures from the car where I was sitting, but there was a lot of glare from the sun on the windows. I decided to make my way to the open carriage and try to get some better pictures.

Wow! Well it was really windy and my eyes were tearing and the smoke from the locomotive was often blowing on us, but it was worth it. When we arrived at Arthur’s Pass for our 10 minute stop, I made my way back to my seat. The next portion of the trip would take us into a long tunnel for about 15 minutes and when we emerged on the other side, we were on the west side of the Southern Alps.

 Up in the high plateau area where hardly anything grows.



 Beautiful crystal clear lakes and ice capped mountain peaks

Lots of sheep in the lower valleys.  Missed the greatest shot ever:  mother ewe sitting on the ground with her tiny lamb in front of her...  touching noses !   SO CUTE !

 We followed this river for a long time

"The Southern Alps run 450 km north to south. The tallest peak is Aoraki / Mount Cook, the highest point in New Zealand at 3,754 metres (12,316 ft) and there are sixteen other points in the range that exceed 3,000 metres in height. The mountains are cut through with glacial valleys and lakes. According to an inventory conducted in the late 1970s, the Southern Alps contained over 3000 glaciers larger than a hectare, the longest of which – the Tasman Glacier – is 29 kilometres in length."

As we approached Moana, they provided us a bit of information about the town and Lake Brunner.  Although the brochure had presented it as a “tourist destination” where you could have a “superb lunch with views of the lake”, it turns out it is only a very small town with 2 cafés.   When the conductor came to give me the information about exiting the train, I told him I had not realized how small the town was and would it be OK if I just stayed on until we reached Greymouth, the end of the line.  “No problem” was the response; so I just stayed on the train until we reached the end of the line on the Tasman Sea coast at Greymouth, at 12:45.  Instead of having three hours for a leisurely lunch, I only had one hour, so I crossed the street in front of the station to a nearby pub restaurant named “The Speights Ale House”.  It turned out to be a nice choice.

 Speights Ale House

This was called Smoked Salmon Cheese Cake. Well it did look a bit like a cake before I demolished it with my fork.  It had a base of potato pancake, nicely grilled, with a heated shredded mesclum salad and the smoked salmon mixture of cream, gherkins & capers. YUM…..

I had time to do a short walk around the streets of Greymouth, in search of a café for a nice cup of “Long Black with a dash of milk”.  Yes, they use the same terminology here as they do in Australia.   But the best part was that the café I located also had some fresh baked goods as well.  I purchased a huge date scone and walked back to the train, with 5 minutes to spare, to eat my dessert and savour my coffee.  

We left at 1:45 pm and the ride back was obviously the same, but I did get to sit on the other side of the carriage and get some different vistas.

 The area between Greymouth and the mountains has a high rainfall level and it is a dairy producing region.

The tracks followed a river for a long distance

We could see where there had been landslides up in the mountains







 From a high bridge

We arrived back in Christchurch at 6:05 and I hopped on a shuttle bus for the return trip to the motel.  It was a long day, my back was still bothering me, but it had really been worth the price.  Another check mark on my bucket list.

That evening, I was watching TV when all of a sudden there was a loud BANG, and then the room started to shake, and shake, and I knew it was an earthquake.  Not the same type of movement we get when we have earthquakes in Ottawa with the sideways motion. It was like I was sitting in a box and someone was shaking it up and down. Since I was on the second floor of the motel, I wasn’t sure if I should leave the building or not.  When I looked out the window, no one had exited from their rooms, so I just stayed put.  I swear that 20 minutes later I could still feel tremors; whether it was my body, or the building shaking, I’m not too sure. 
I listened to the news at 11 pm and there was absolutely no mention of the quake.  Talk about getting a “trick” instead of a “treat” for Halloween.