Today’s blog will be short and sweet – well, I can’t get it right all the time, can I?
Having discussed the options for today, I announced to Tom, that despite his doubts, we WOULD be going on the TranzAlpine train to Greymouth and back, although it was the most expensive thing we’ve done so far. It sounded marvellous but the reality was very different. I shan’t expound in detail but I’m sure Tom will – suffice to say it was not a roaring success.
The best part of the day was our evening meal at Sophie’s café
after we got back to the motel. And we have been able to get back online thanks to a bit of jiggery pokery from Zenbu. So I’ve replied to lots of your e-mails but I will get back to the rest of you tomorrow.
Now it’s over to Tom……….
Far be it from me to say I told her so, but……..
If all goes well, you spend 9 hours on the train, and one hour in Greymouth. It’s billed as a great scenic ride, one of the 6 best scenic journeys in the world, so we, and especially she, were looking forward to it. We had to get up early as the train left at 8.15 and we had to check in half an hour before. We set out in brilliant early morning sunshine and sped across the Canterbury plain for the first hour, before we even saw a hill, far less a mountain.
And they were quite proud of the fact that the track was laid at the end of the 1800s. I think it was the original track, since we were rattled up and down, side to side and back to front. When we finally arrived in the hills, the track generally hugged the Southern walls of the various valleys, and our seats were on the South side of the train, so we got long close up views of steep vegetation.
We were allowed out for a leg stretch half way, at Arthur’s Pass station, and the train then went into the third longest tunnel in New Zealand, so for the next 11k we stared at our reflection in the train window.
When we came out on the West side of the range, we were faced with low cloud covering the hills, and gentle rain pattering against the window. 
We arrived in Greymouth, 15 mins late, giving us half an hour to view the town, in the rain. We had cold drinks and Maggie went glassy eyed at the thought that we had to do it all over again in reverse. She decided to buy a quilting magazine to give her something to do on the way back, as she had enjoyed the trip so much!
Back was similar to forward, except that this time we had seats on the other side of the train, so were able to see more of the bases of the hills with cloud shrouding them. We plodded our way back up through the tunnel, and miracle of miracles, it was bright sunshine again on the East side, so for the next hour, we were able to see what we had missed on the way out.
The scenery was pretty impressive in parts, but generally we were too close to the hills to see any real distance. Finally, we thumped our way back onto the plain, and the driver was clearly trying to make up time, because it was all but impossible to stand up.
We arrived back at Christchurch, ears ringing from the noise, and brains addled from the shaking. Maggie’s convinced she has whiplash from some of the jolts.
I was tempted to try a “told you so”, but as soon as I started, I got a death stare, so thought better of it.
As Maggie says, though, we had a quite splendid meal at Sophie’s. Great slabs of steak with all the trimmings,
and monstrous puddings to follow, 
all at ridiculously low prices. So a fine end to a not so fine day.
PS. Told you so. OOOWWWWWW!!
I couldn’t bear to write all that down and now I shall go and chastise him properly………Goodnight all.
Having discussed the options for today, I announced to Tom, that despite his doubts, we WOULD be going on the TranzAlpine train to Greymouth and back, although it was the most expensive thing we’ve done so far. It sounded marvellous but the reality was very different. I shan’t expound in detail but I’m sure Tom will – suffice to say it was not a roaring success.
The best part of the day was our evening meal at Sophie’s café
after we got back to the motel. And we have been able to get back online thanks to a bit of jiggery pokery from Zenbu. So I’ve replied to lots of your e-mails but I will get back to the rest of you tomorrow.Now it’s over to Tom……….
Far be it from me to say I told her so, but……..
If all goes well, you spend 9 hours on the train, and one hour in Greymouth. It’s billed as a great scenic ride, one of the 6 best scenic journeys in the world, so we, and especially she, were looking forward to it. We had to get up early as the train left at 8.15 and we had to check in half an hour before. We set out in brilliant early morning sunshine and sped across the Canterbury plain for the first hour, before we even saw a hill, far less a mountain.
And they were quite proud of the fact that the track was laid at the end of the 1800s. I think it was the original track, since we were rattled up and down, side to side and back to front. When we finally arrived in the hills, the track generally hugged the Southern walls of the various valleys, and our seats were on the South side of the train, so we got long close up views of steep vegetation.We were allowed out for a leg stretch half way, at Arthur’s Pass station, and the train then went into the third longest tunnel in New Zealand, so for the next 11k we stared at our reflection in the train window.
When we came out on the West side of the range, we were faced with low cloud covering the hills, and gentle rain pattering against the window. We arrived in Greymouth, 15 mins late, giving us half an hour to view the town, in the rain. We had cold drinks and Maggie went glassy eyed at the thought that we had to do it all over again in reverse. She decided to buy a quilting magazine to give her something to do on the way back, as she had enjoyed the trip so much!Back was similar to forward, except that this time we had seats on the other side of the train, so were able to see more of the bases of the hills with cloud shrouding them. We plodded our way back up through the tunnel, and miracle of miracles, it was bright sunshine again on the East side, so for the next hour, we were able to see what we had missed on the way out.
The scenery was pretty impressive in parts, but generally we were too close to the hills to see any real distance. Finally, we thumped our way back onto the plain, and the driver was clearly trying to make up time, because it was all but impossible to stand up.We arrived back at Christchurch, ears ringing from the noise, and brains addled from the shaking. Maggie’s convinced she has whiplash from some of the jolts.
I was tempted to try a “told you so”, but as soon as I started, I got a death stare, so thought better of it.
As Maggie says, though, we had a quite splendid meal at Sophie’s. Great slabs of steak with all the trimmings,
and monstrous puddings to follow, all at ridiculously low prices. So a fine end to a not so fine day.PS. Told you so. OOOWWWWWW!!
I couldn’t bear to write all that down and now I shall go and chastise him properly………Goodnight all.
No comments:
Post a Comment