After the wedding festivities I stayed on
in Christchurch for a few days. Denise and I took the Tranz Alpine over (or
more accurately through) the Southern Alps to Greymouth on the West Coast.
It’s a modern train, in fact the rolling
stock was only delivered late last year. One of the nice touches is an open
sided observation car although it was a bit chilly on the early morning run out
of Christchurch.
Initially the track crosses the flat
Canterbury plain, before hitting the foothills of the Southern Alps and
climbing alongside the
Waimakariri
River as it cuts its way through the mountains. There are impressive views
of the gorge and the viaducts as the train approaches them.
It has been an incredibly dry summer and the plains are in the rain shadow of the Alps so the ground was very brown.
The halfway point is
Arthur’s Pass the highest
point on the line at 737 metres.
After a brief stop there the line plunges
into the
Otira Tunnel,
8.5 Km with a 1 in 33 gradient. Out the other side, we stopped at Otira to let a coal train pass.
These haul coal from the West Coast mines to Lyttelton for export. Each of the wagons holds 50 tonnes of coal. There are two locomotives at the head of the train and
banking engines are needed to get the train through the tunnel.
Now being on the West Coast, the evidence
of the higher rainfall was apparent. Although they had been officially declared
a drought area having no significant rain since Christmas.
The line follows the Grey River down to the coast.
We arrived at Greymouth in time for a
hearty lunch and then travelled up to
Punakaiki where Noreen and I
briefly stopped at
last
year.
The sea conditions were better this time for the
blow holes to
operate.
If this is drought, imagine what it would
be like in the wet season!
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We stayed in the historic settlement of Blackball in the
old hotel known as Formerly The Blackball
Hilton. From Wikipaedia – It was founded in 1910 as the Dominion Hotel, renaming itself
after the mine manager, after whom the town's main street is also named. It was
forced to change its name after objections from the
international hotel chain of the same name (boo hiss!).
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As
you can see it is not a heaving metropolis
but it does have the
remains of its mine and the most fantails I have ever seen (Denise says this is
because the sandfly
population is extreme, and they seem to prefer her to other humans.)
Overnight the drought
came to an end. There was quite a deluge, but nowhere near a record.
The next morning was damp and misty but we
managed to have a good look round the old Brunner Mine.
And then it was time to return on the train to Christchurch and the next day back to Wellington and work.
