NewZeaLinz: TranzAlpine

Now that I've officially relocated to the North Island, time to backtrack and update you on my last adventure in the South Island before I made the trek north!

There are a few amazing train rides one can take in New Zealand. One of them is called the "TranzAlpine", a 223km, 4.5 hr train journey right across the middle of the South Island, from Christchurch up to Greymouth.

I heard the trip was gorgeous, especially in the wintertime due to it's "TranzAlpine" crossing through the Southern Alps. So I headed to Christchurch to do the round-trip adventure in one big, long exciting day!

Here's the train before we departed from the Christchurch Railway Station at 8AM (long day ahead!)

The most fun part was the viewing deck, where the wind was bone-chilling but the photo opportunities were fabulous!

I think I spent more of my time on this viewing deck than in my actual ticketed seat. :)

Leaving Christchurch, we crossed the Canterbury Plains, full of farmland and rivers. But it wasn't too long before these beautiful snow-covered mountains came into view!

Here they are--- the Southern Alps! They're a chain of mountains that pretty much run from the southwest to the northeast of the entire South Island.

For the first half of the journey, the train route follows the Waimakariri River, an ice-fed river about 150 km long. Waimakariri means "river of cold rushing water". It is a braided river, with wide shingle beds on the sides which it flows through and makes its criss-crossing "braided" pattern.

After the Waimakariri Gorge, we crossed one of the four viaducts, seen below.

In case you were wondering (like I was!), a viaduct is a bridge made of small sections (sometimes arches) used to carry a road (or a railroad) over a valley or another road.

Then it got real snowy as we rode through Arthur's Pass National Park. I was too lazy/cold to get out on the viewing deck for these photos, so pardon if there's some glare from the window. :)

The halfway point of the journey was a quick leg-stretch photo stop at Arthurs Pass. The South Island's first National Park is located here.

Our train! Choo-Choo!

After Arthurs Pass was the Otira Tunnel, 8.5 km of darkness with an elevation climb of 250 meters. Because of the hard work of the engines and just how darn long the tunnel is, there's a concern for the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gases building up in this tunnel. For safety, passengers aren't allowed out on the viewing deck through the tunnel (duh, nothing to see anyway!). Also, they've created a door and fan system that after a train goes into the tunnel, a door closes behind the train, and fans turn on to extract the fumes out. Clever, eh?

It wasn't soon after the Otira Tunnel that I saw a rainbow out the window.

Wouldn't be a Linz adventure without one!

Next up was passing by Lake Brunner, on the way to the West Coast.

And before you knew it, we were pulling in to the Greymouth Railway Station, all the way on the other coast of the South Island! Some people choose to spend the night in this small town, but I chose to wander the downtown for the hour break, then hop back on for the return journey that afternoon.

Here is the mouth of the Grey River. (any guesses how this town got its name?)

Greymouth is (and was) a coal town. A European by the name of Thomas Brunner (any guesses how that Lake got its name??) was the first European to visit this area, and discover coal here.

Coal mining is a prosperous but dangerous industry. The Pike River Mine is just over 40 km from Greymouth. This is where an explosion occured last year, tragically killing 29 miners.

Below is a photo of a bridge leading to the Brunner Mine. Here, in 1896, 65 miners died in an explosion- the worst mine disaster in New Zealand history.

After hearing about all that tragedy, it was appropriately fitting to see this, albeit faint, rainbow as we passed along Lake Brunner on the way back to Christchurch.