West Coast

We’ve lived in New Zealand for 12 years now, and I’ve never visited the West Coast. Nicola has been here once before, around 20 years ago. The region is known for its wet weather, but we thought we might get lucky. We left Wellington in sunshine, but there was a low brewing in the Tasman Sea…

We decided to use a reward voucher at Wellington Airport to use the lounge, as these were due to expire soon. This provided us with a free lunch, and we then flew to Christchurch. Our accommodation was centrally located on Bealey Avenue, and from there we walked into town for a pre-booked dinner at Twenty Seven Steps. This is in a newly-built area of central Christchurch, and it was noticeable – to me, at least – how ersatz it all looks. All the buildings are new, mostly characterless modern blocks, and some are built in old-style looks, but appear completely fake. I dunno, maybe it’ll look more natural in fifty years’ time, but at the moment it’s ugly.

No matter. Up the stairs (I didn’t count) and we were seated with efficiency, cocktails brought, and food ordered. The food was delicious – grilled sardines, venison and chocolate mousse for me, smoked salmon, hapuka and crème brûlée for Nicola – and the service excellent. Definitely gets a thumbs up from me!

We were up at sparrow fart the next morning to get on the Tranzalpine train at 8:15. I tried ordering a car from Zoomy, having checked availability whilst we were having breakfast. Looked like there were cars in the area around seven minutes away, so it seemed like no problem. When I tried after breakfast, that had gone out to 10 minutes. Then I clicked “book journey”: no cars available. What the actual? Why not? So a bit of a panicked call to a local cab company, who were fortunately able to send a car and got us to the station in time to get the train. Not trusting Zoomy again.

The Tranzalpine does exactly what it says on the tin: it goes across the country, via the Southern Alps. It’s a scenic journey, with scenery, and the train includes an open-air viewing car to be able to take it all in, and take unobstructed photos, as we traversed the Alps. We stopped at Arthur’s Pass and a number of passengers disembarked at that point for a day’s tramping in the Alps. We were sternly admonished not to wander off with these groups and miss the train, as they wouldn’t be checking us back on. We managed to safely reboard. I was on the lookout for kea, but there weren’t any. At Arthur’s Pass they add a few more engines to the train to complete the final incline, then it was downhill all the way as we headed into the West Coast and arrived at Greymouth at around lunchtime. We went and got ourselves a lunch at the Speight’s Alehouse opposite the station, then picked up our hire car for our final journey to the hotel (around 400m away), and checked in.

In the afternoon we had a look around Greymouth CBD. It’s not exactly a tourist town, more a functional place, so there’s not really much to sea. As the afternoon progressed, the rain set in…we dined in the hotel rather than venture out into what passes for dining experiences in Greymouth. Maybe tomorrow night?