Tranz-Alpine Railroad and Westport
23 - 26 January 2023
Julie and Anthony at Pancake Rocks
We arrived in Christchurch New Zealand a bit late in the day on the 23rd. We stayed the night in the Chateau on the Park, a sprawling hotel with beautiful fountains and gardens. We had an early morning to catch the Tranz-Alpine train, which would take us all the way to the the West Coast.
Rainy views from the train for the first few hours of the trip.
The Southern Alps were shrouded in clouds most of our trip.
Anthony hopped of the train at Authurs Pass to take some photos and stretch his legs.
More photos from the train on the way down to the west coast.
We left the train in Greymouth, got our car and went looking for some personal essentials. BIG FAIL. Julie lost it a bit. The anti-perspirants were itsy-bitsy roll ons. How do Kiwis not smell more? She also had to start the hunt for contact cleaning solution. OH how she was missing CVS!!! After getting thoroughly disgusted in not finding what she wanted, we headed up the west coast to Westport.
We stopped at Pancake Rocks. These were very cool.
Fur Seals at Cape Foulwind
Sunset in Westport
Julie and Anthony at the Historic Denniston Mining town.
We drove a few miles up the coast (and up the mountain) to the Historic Denniston Coal mine. We went as much for the spectacular views as for the historic mine.
The road on the way up to the mine went down to a single lane in 3 different places. We would not want to come up or down this road in the dark.
When we checked into the hotel in Westport, we asked about places to eat. We were told that the Yellow House probably had the most healthy food. We walked over there, where the owner, Lynn, told us she just couldn’t deal with us right then and that we needed to come back in 40 minutes. So we did, and we were very happy we did. The food was terrific and the company was even better. It seems that the previous diners had had a very lively discussion about world politics. The single patron that remained was delighted that they were gone, and seemed to enjoy talking to us about all the places we all had been. Lynn was able to relax a bit, now that the crowd was gone, and even sat down with us. Overall, it was a lovely evening.
Our final night in Westport, we went to the lighthouse at Cape Foulwind to see the sunset. We had to walk a little farther than we wanted, but the view was worth it.
A couple more photos from the road, on the way down to Hokitika.
