They don't call Christchurch the most British city outside of England for nothing.But I am not in Christchurch any longer - yesterday, Susan and I took a train west. Trains are not really used in New Zealand for transportation - there are a total of three trains, all by the same company, all used pretty much for tourist transport. But it is totally worth it - and for our itinerary, the most efficient, and certainly prettiest, way to get where we wanted to go. We left from Christchurch and went straight over the mountains to Greymouth on the West Coast. The Tranz Alpine route goes through the Southern Alps and the coal mining towns and over to the West, where there is more rain and fewer people. It was lovely when we left, but started getting cold and rain at the summit. Cold, sure, rain, sure, but still stunning.
And it seems Susan's good travel karma, and my apparently horrible travel karma got into a cage match, and hers won the battle: Our train was nearly an hour late getting in, which proved a problem for the bus we were supposed to catch. But apparently, the train is often late, so the buses wait. We had about 4 minutes grace period, but it was all we needed. After a quick stop in a tiny town, we made it south to the town of Franz Joseph (size: two streets, one glacier) in time for some bitter, brutal rain to come in. Plus, it was COLD. (Speaking of, I love how it is about 30 degrees colder here than it was in PATAGONIA. Weird weather, yo.)
Franz is backpacker central, and there are probably more helicopters and camper vans here than actual Kiwis, but it's also pretty awesome. It is the only place I have ever, ever been that I can take an easy hike in the rainforest and then come out on the main road, turn left, and see the glacier. It's surreal.
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