The TransCoastal Railway
The second leg of our rail journey ran via the TransCoastal railway. The TransCoastal leaves Christchurch station at 7:00 am. What the hell were we thinking?
We woke to the alarm at 5:30 to allow us to shower and prepare, to repack yet again our suitcases, to haul it all out to the front of the hotel, and then wait for the shuttle that the hotel clerks assured drove by daily at 6:15. Skeptical, yet determined, we dragged ourselves and our gear to the lobby (the Stonehurst hotel is spread along several smaller buildings along a 1/2 block length, with our apartment pretty much as far from the lobby as one can get). We met another small group of travellers who also hoped to catch the same train, so we felt somewhat comforted inasmuch as we wouldn't be alone in being abandoned on the side of Glouchester Street as the train pulled out several miles away. While we waited, I decided to play with my camera in night situations, and got these two interesting shots.
The shuttle did, in fact, arrive on schedule and we were spirited safely and in a timely manner to the train station. The driver was one of a few kiwis I had met who had close relatives who had married (for some inexplicable reason) a Canadian. Aside from his own time spent living in the Don Mills area of Toronto (it was a peculiar treat to chat with someone other than Debbie who understood Toronto a little bit) he related that his sister and her husband were returning that very day from a visit with his sibling living in Canada. Who in their right mind leaves, knowing full well the climate differences, New Zealand for Canada in February? For all those out there who might think this slightly appealing, please - please! believe me ... the charm of a snowy landscape fades very very quickly.
After a disappointing meeting with the ticket booth (at which we discovered the helpful, but misguided lady in Greymouth had inadvertantly deceived us inasmuch as she was unable to pre-assign us seats on the TransCoastal) we were saddled with shoreward (as the train travels north) seats. We grumbled a little but settled into our assigned seats, and were thankful that no-one took the two seats opposite our forward facing two. My inital grumbling about the seating arrangements was fairly quickly extinguished when the sun arose, and the seaward seats were bathed in a really annoying bath of light that we, on the landward side could avoid. Nyah Nyah.
Seriously, though, our seats were literally six steps from the door that led to the observation carriage. As the journey progressed, we found it very convenient as needed to step out to the (very windy, diesel smokey) observation carriage for a clearer view of the scenery.
The TransCoastal route was apparently chosen by politicians (surprise!) and headed inland for quite a while in order to bolster the economic fortunes of some of the towns on the route. After the long and quite dreary passage through endless (new-ish) subdivisions and (old and very run-down) industrial areas, we set out into some scenic hilly areas.
I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get some blog writing done, so I set up the laptop and went to it.
The coast did finally appear, and as advertised the TransCoastal delivered some truly spectacular views of the east coast of the New Zealand south island.
Debbie spent quite a while in the observation carriage watching the ocean scenery while listening to her MP3 player. I did the same but without the diesel fumes.
The coastal portion of the journey continued for quite some time and the views did not diminish in scenic quality. The waves on the ocean were reasonably strong and made for some truly gorgeous views.
Eventually the track led us more inland, with only sporadic views of oceanic wildness. One particularly interesting sight in this segment of the trip was the salt evaporation fields. Basically someone has sectioned off large tracts of land, and they periodically flood these tracts with ocean water and let the water evaporate leaving the salt behind.
The evaporation fields are pink because of some benign algae (although since I'm currently halfway through reading Dean [don't need a middle inital] Koontz's "The Taken" in which there is an alien spoor laden rain I'm not currently inclined to sign off on any supposedly friendly algae). Yes I know there are reflections in the picture. It's what you get when you take your pictures at the last minute when you finally get your headphones off and listen to the train purser's narrative.
We disembarked in Picton and collected our luggage. We at this point are hauling three large (wheeled) suitcases, one small (wheeled) suitcase, one non-wheeled carry-on bag, one backpack containing the laptop and miscellaneous related gear, and the camera bag. Due to a minor navigational error on my part, we hauled and dragged this collection from the train station across the Picton waterfront park, up some wide stairs, under the war memorial, and then finally up the main street and to our second floor motel room at the Americano. There was no grousing I am told.
After unpacking, we headed out for a final walkabout in Picton and a little dinner. The early start to the day guaranteed an early finish.
Tomorrow we're off on the ferry. Fun!
Don
We woke to the alarm at 5:30 to allow us to shower and prepare, to repack yet again our suitcases, to haul it all out to the front of the hotel, and then wait for the shuttle that the hotel clerks assured drove by daily at 6:15. Skeptical, yet determined, we dragged ourselves and our gear to the lobby (the Stonehurst hotel is spread along several smaller buildings along a 1/2 block length, with our apartment pretty much as far from the lobby as one can get). We met another small group of travellers who also hoped to catch the same train, so we felt somewhat comforted inasmuch as we wouldn't be alone in being abandoned on the side of Glouchester Street as the train pulled out several miles away. While we waited, I decided to play with my camera in night situations, and got these two interesting shots.
The shuttle did, in fact, arrive on schedule and we were spirited safely and in a timely manner to the train station. The driver was one of a few kiwis I had met who had close relatives who had married (for some inexplicable reason) a Canadian. Aside from his own time spent living in the Don Mills area of Toronto (it was a peculiar treat to chat with someone other than Debbie who understood Toronto a little bit) he related that his sister and her husband were returning that very day from a visit with his sibling living in Canada. Who in their right mind leaves, knowing full well the climate differences, New Zealand for Canada in February? For all those out there who might think this slightly appealing, please - please! believe me ... the charm of a snowy landscape fades very very quickly.
After a disappointing meeting with the ticket booth (at which we discovered the helpful, but misguided lady in Greymouth had inadvertantly deceived us inasmuch as she was unable to pre-assign us seats on the TransCoastal) we were saddled with shoreward (as the train travels north) seats. We grumbled a little but settled into our assigned seats, and were thankful that no-one took the two seats opposite our forward facing two. My inital grumbling about the seating arrangements was fairly quickly extinguished when the sun arose, and the seaward seats were bathed in a really annoying bath of light that we, on the landward side could avoid. Nyah Nyah.
Seriously, though, our seats were literally six steps from the door that led to the observation carriage. As the journey progressed, we found it very convenient as needed to step out to the (very windy, diesel smokey) observation carriage for a clearer view of the scenery.
The TransCoastal route was apparently chosen by politicians (surprise!) and headed inland for quite a while in order to bolster the economic fortunes of some of the towns on the route. After the long and quite dreary passage through endless (new-ish) subdivisions and (old and very run-down) industrial areas, we set out into some scenic hilly areas.
I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get some blog writing done, so I set up the laptop and went to it.
The coast did finally appear, and as advertised the TransCoastal delivered some truly spectacular views of the east coast of the New Zealand south island.
Debbie spent quite a while in the observation carriage watching the ocean scenery while listening to her MP3 player. I did the same but without the diesel fumes.
The coastal portion of the journey continued for quite some time and the views did not diminish in scenic quality. The waves on the ocean were reasonably strong and made for some truly gorgeous views.
Eventually the track led us more inland, with only sporadic views of oceanic wildness. One particularly interesting sight in this segment of the trip was the salt evaporation fields. Basically someone has sectioned off large tracts of land, and they periodically flood these tracts with ocean water and let the water evaporate leaving the salt behind.
The evaporation fields are pink because of some benign algae (although since I'm currently halfway through reading Dean [don't need a middle inital] Koontz's "The Taken" in which there is an alien spoor laden rain I'm not currently inclined to sign off on any supposedly friendly algae). Yes I know there are reflections in the picture. It's what you get when you take your pictures at the last minute when you finally get your headphones off and listen to the train purser's narrative.
We disembarked in Picton and collected our luggage. We at this point are hauling three large (wheeled) suitcases, one small (wheeled) suitcase, one non-wheeled carry-on bag, one backpack containing the laptop and miscellaneous related gear, and the camera bag. Due to a minor navigational error on my part, we hauled and dragged this collection from the train station across the Picton waterfront park, up some wide stairs, under the war memorial, and then finally up the main street and to our second floor motel room at the Americano. There was no grousing I am told.
After unpacking, we headed out for a final walkabout in Picton and a little dinner. The early start to the day guaranteed an early finish.
Tomorrow we're off on the ferry. Fun!
Don
posted by Don at
5:23 pm
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