Friday, January 06, 2006

We were up at 6.15 on Wednesday morning to catch the Tranzalpine Express to Greymouth (East Coast to West Coast). The train journey was excellent, we thoroughly enjoyed it.... the scenery was amazing. First we headed out of Christchurch, crossing the Canterbury Plains. Then we climbed through the alpine foothills and the Waimakariri Gorge to Arthurs Pass National Park. Mum and I made our way to the front of the train so we could get some photos from the viewing carriage, it was absolutely freezing, I made Mum say there for over half an hour, I didn't want to leave in case I missed a good photo opportunity!! We did leave after a while though, our hands and faces were soooo cold, it was amazing how cold it was! Eventually we reached 737 metres high Arthurs Pass which was surrounded by snow capped mountain peaks. After that we headed downwards again and entered the Otira Tunnel, after 8.5 kms we came out again into the rainforest of the west coast. Our journey ended in Greymouth on the shores of the Tasman Sea. The journey was 231km long, and took 4.5 hours. There are 16 tunnels on the way and the highest viaduct is the Staircase at 73m. I would definitely recommend taking this trip, it really was worthwhile.
So we arrived in Greymouth yesterday afternoon, there isn't actually so much here. We dropped off our stuff at the hostel (which is really nice) and then we had a walk around town and went to the supermarket to get some food. When we got back, we tried to take off the dressing from my worst arm as it had gone a funny colour, but as soon as I tried to pull it off, it really hurt as it was stuck right down on the burn and then I started to feel all queazy and faint cos it looked horrible...I'm such a big wuss, we had to go upstairs to our room so I could lie down and Mum could pull it off for me!! Later on we played a few games, Jenga, Ludo, and we tried our hands at Draughts and Scrabble, but neither of us could remember how to play them, we had fun though and it passed the time! This morning we didn't get up until 11am (how lazy are we!) but I was so tired I really needed the lie in. We had some breakfast and then set off for a walk up the northern beach. We walked past lots of houses by the beach, it really is a small town, population of 9,000, it's so quiet and everyone is so friendly here, they all stop you and say hello, it's so nice. Anyway, it actually was 6km even to get to the beginning of the walk, so we gave up after 1.5 hours of walking and headed back again! We had some lunch and then have just been walking through the town, I managed to find a cheap internet in a Turkish kebab shop...it's a bit smelly, but it's cheap!!
Tomorrow we're off to Franz Josef.

No comments: