Day 9 – Back to Christchurch

The only bad thing about the South Island is that if you want to get anywhere other than the North Island, your only option is Christchurch; so we had to backtrack there from the West Coast in order to catch a flight to Australia. Instead of yet more driving, we opted for a trans-Alpine scenic train ride from Greymouth (ok, we had to drive two hours to get to the train, and we were almost late getting there because Kristin “lost” her passport, and then when we did get there, we left our rental car at the wrong place and had to haul all six of our bags across town on foot…). We split a meatball sandwich from Subway for lunch on the train ride; the irony being that the first time Kristin ever set foot in a Subway was in a foreign country.

The train ride was beautiful, and it beat the hell out of driving. In Christchurch, we stayed at a surprisingly nice hotel at the airport, because we had to get up a 4:30 to catch our flight to Australia. The last thing we did in New Zealand was have a nice dinner at the restaurant in the hotel where we stayed our first night there.

This small town was built near the construction site of the Otira Tunnel, which runs for about 8.5km from about here through to Arthur's Pass. After the tunnel was completed, there was no need for the town, and the people who now occupy these houses are basically squatters (at least that's what I think the narrator said).


View from Arthur's Pass where they let us out of the train for a bit.
Out train rounding the proverbial bend...

If you like snow-capped mountains and sheep farms, you're going to love New Zealand.