Business Development Specialist

Its mid winter and my wife and I decided to take a long weekend from work and do something a bit special; we decided to go on the Tranz Alpine, a train trip from Christchurch to Greymouth through the mountainous Southern Alps.

It had been snowing intermittently during the previous two weeks so we were looking forward to lots of snow capped mountains.  We had asked a couple of friends to come along to as not only was this going to be a good relaxing break it was also the week we let everyone know that Kirsty was pregnant and we were expecting our first child.  As it was our friends couldn’t manage but hell we were going to enjoy ourselves anyway.

Early on the Saturday morning the train trundles out of Christchurch, not the prettiest of cities from the train, but hey were we worried, no, within minutes we could see the first of the snow capped mountains, the sky was blue, the sun was shinning, it was going to be a good day.

Once we hit the first of the mountains the conductor tells us that some spectacular views of the Waimakariri river was coming up and hinted that you would not be disappointed if you made your way to the viewing carriage.  Being the budding photographers that we are (not) we put on our winter jackets and headed for the viewing platform, bloody hell was it cold, within seconds I looked like Rudolph, within the minute my nose was running the London marathon and to top it off I couldn’t see a bloody thing because were one of the last to get there!!  We came back to our seats, not being able to feel our faces and finding it incredibly difficult to talk (those of you who know me might be slightly surprised by this statement but hey, that’s what -10C wind chill factor will do to you!!) but we saw the sights all the same, I may not be able to share them with you now but they are still well entrenched in my personal archives.

Time for a high tea, nothing beats a good cup of tea and warm scones, jam and cream on a cold day, we continued for the next 15-20mins getting warm and feeding our face, oh and checking out the incredible view!!

We came through Cass where the conductor tells everyone about it’s sole resident, Rambo, apparently he keeps the lines clear, you can imagine I had this muscle bound Italian with ammo belts strapped to his chest blasting the shit out of anything that lay across the tracks.  Interesting enough he was featured on Close Up (I think) a couple of weeks later, I have to say I was disappointed he was a grey haired older gentleman and really quite ordinary (I preferred my version!!).

We trundle on towards Arthurs Pass through some low lying fog which, when the sun started to get through reminded me from a scene on my Xbox when I’m taking on Zombies ……  Sorry didn’t mean to break the idyllic scene, but it really was eerie.

We get to Arthurs Pass; we get off to stretch our legs for five minutes, just enough time for some of the passengers to suck on their cancer sticks and enough time for us to get cold ears and noses again.  There was lots of snow, the kids on the train were all having snowball fights and we managed to find a nice person to take our photo together.

Back on the train and we go through the longest tunnel in NZ, obviously not much I can report here, it was dark, but hey at least we can say were went through it.  Out the other side we are surrounded by the almost tropical vegetation of the West Coast, no snow here, just lots of greenery and water falls.

The train makes one more stop in Moana on the shore of Lake Brunner where the couple sitting at our table disembark.  A wee while later we pull into Greymouth, yeah Greymouth, the place we were going to spend the next 24hrs.

Once we picked up our luggage we checked into our hotel, we deliberately chose one near the station as Kirsty was getting tired quite quickly so we didn’t want to be walking too far.  The hotel we booked into was one of the biggest in the town and part of a bigger group so assumed it would be quite good, eh wrong!!!  Other than the 2009 newly fitted lift it was definitely stepping back into the late 70’s early 80’s but they get away with it, why, it’s close to the station and there was quite a few of us checking in off the train.

Feeling a bit peckish, we decided to walk into the town centre (1 block away!) and see what we could find to eat.  We found a pub restaurant nearby, the food was good and reasonably priced, so we ate our fill and decided to do a bit of shopping (window shopping at the very least), well bugger me if all the shops weren’t shut.  2pm on a Saturday afternoon and the place is like a ghost town with Paperplus, Dick Smiths and an “alternative” shop being the only things open, it was like stepping back in time by 20yrs.

What a let down, what are you supposed to do in Greymouth if you do not have a car, I suggest to you nothing, for what its worth we went back to the hotel so that Kirsty could have a sleep, all the walking around was making her tired.  There we stayed until tea time; we decided to go out for tea (so we could have another walk) and went to the Speights Ale House.  When we got there we were told a table would be available in 30mins, we put our name down and went to the bar for a drink.  45mins later we asked how close we were to getting a table, they sat us down almost immediately, took another order of drinks and on return with these drinks they tell us we may have to wait another 45mins!!!  Apparently the problem was they had a private function and the kitchen couldn’t cope, I don’t know much about running a restaurant but I would have thought the kitchen should be able to cope even if all the tables had someone sitting at them, apparently I am wrong because the general dining part was almost empty and the kitchen still couldn’t cope!!

Anyway we eventually received our meals, mine didn’t taste that flash and Kirsty chose a chicken dish which was not that warm (anyone who has been or is pregnant will tell you not to eat it for fear of food poisoning and seriously affecting the baby).  So after a wonderful trip, a boring afternoon we end up with a disappointing meal.

To me Greymouth has a wonderful opportunity to capitalise on a captured audience but quite frankly they don’t, I’m sure there must be a way of squeezing more dollars out of the tourists who decide to spend a night in Greymouth but what that would be who knows.

A classic example of the journey being better than the destination; the next time we do this trip, and we will because it is stunning, we’ll get off at Moana and hire a batch at least the place is stunning to look at and there are plenty of walks and a big lake to play on!!