After my full day in Christchurch, I was ready to explore the real nature of the south island where I would start my road trip in Greymouth where I booked a rental car weeks in advance.
To reach Greymouth, at the other side of the island, I booked a "scenic" train ride on the Tranzalpine train which departed Christchuch around 8 in the morning and operated by KiwiRail
Day 2: The Tranzalpine train, Road from Greymouth to Franz Joseph Glacier
Unlike in most of Europe, travelling by train is not a very common thing in NZ. It's pretty much like in the US, to travel by train to take the time to travel, and enjoy the scenic views during the journey. The tranzalpine train is one of the 3 main train journeys one can take in New Zealand and goes daily between Christchurch, on the pacific side of the south island to Greymouth, on the tasman sea, crossing the New Zealand Alps, and includes a 10-minute stop at Arthur's pass almost half way. After an hour stop in Greymouth it travels back to Christchurch, allowing day visitors to Arthur's pass NP to come back to Christchurch. The - comfortable - train is mostly designed for tourists, and is equipped with a small restaurant carriage and a scenic carriage exposed to the outside and the entire journey takes about 5 hours and half.
The South-African traveler I met the day before Hercules was also booked on that train and I met him at the station the morning of the departure.
The Christchurch train station is located quite outside the center of the city and it was a 15-min Uber ride from my hotel. I arrived quite early that morning and only a few passengers were there, so I did not have to queue for long before getting my boarding pass.
Christchurch train station - basically two tracks, and one platform !
Inside the station
...And the station's platform
About 20 minutes later the small station started to get more crowded and we were invited to drop our bags at the dedicated car...
The scenic car, too bad it was located right behind the smoky diesel engines...
We eventually started boarding 15 min before departure, although seats were assigned, most of the people spent the ride in different places of the train, including the scenic car located in the front. The train was not full that day.
Each seat was equipped with a power plug and a 3.5 mm jack to follow comments during the journey.
Legroom
Food menu
The train-rides you can take in NZ
After 45 min or so after departure I went to see my new friend Hercules in the scenic car, which was quite crowded. Too bad the car was located right behind the diesel engines...
The restaurant car
After the first few nice views we decided to enjoy some breakfast in the restaurant car...
We left Christchurch with a sunny weather, but it quickly became very cloudy and grey as we were reaching the mountainy part... The views were still nice, but the pictures were not astonishing. I alsways have a hard time taking good pictures when the sky is grey or white...
Around 10:40 we stopped at Arthur's pass station, and a few passengers disembarked. The schedule is made in such a way that you can enjoy a bit Arthur's pass National park for a day trip and catch the train back to Christchurch later in the afternoon.
Arthur's pass station
The rest of the journey was quite uneventful, the landscapes were nice indeed, but nothing breathtaking. We chatted a bit with the friendly crew and they said that while the enjoy working on this line, they found that the best train ride in NZ is actually the Pacific coastliner.
The cows had a different color after the pass :-)
The scenic car got less crowded in the second part of the trip
This guy came out of nowhere really !
Approaching Greymouth
Greymouth station. Litterally cutting the city in two parts.
We reached Greymouth around 13:30 and I said goodbye to Hercules who was connecting to a coach to get to Queenstown. I rented my small SUV at the local Hertz facility and given that Greymouth is the biggest city in the area (and it's not really that big...) before Queenstown, I took the opportunity to grab some supplies at the local supermarket for the next couple days before heading south.
After an hour driving along the Tasman sea coast, I reached the small town of Hokitika where the local i-side advised me of a nice place to visit in the area : The Hokitika gorge, located about 20 min away from the city, which gave me the opportunity to strech my legs before continuing the drive to Franz Joseph Glacier where I would spend the next 2 nights.
Hokitika
It's not a kiwi !
Hokitika gorge
Then it was a couple hours more driving to reach the village of FJ Glacier, with some more scenic spots on the way...
On the way to FJ Glacier
"Downtown" FJ Glacier.
I enjoyed dinner at the restaurant "Full of Beans" located on the main street. Friendly staff, great food, affordable prices, that's the type of places I like !
Day 3: Franz Joseph Glacier area
After a good night sleep followed by a quick breakfast and buying the picnic for the day at the local supermarket, I drove to the near-by Franz Joseph Glacier parking lot to have a walk until the Glacier view point.
Guess who pollutes more between the helicopter and the drone...
The only way to reach the glacier nowadays is - unfortunately - by helicopter, and this is the only way as the local authorities judge that it is too dangerous to climb the glacier. I did not book a helicopter ride most of the shops in both FJ and Fox glacier cities offer the option to book a ride, and actually, I would not support this type of tourism. Let me explain why : I think that you need to deserve visiting the glacier. If it's too hazardous to visit it on foot and climbing it - so be it. But just heading there with a noisy and polluting helicopter is not the way to go in my opinion. i found this even more hypocritical from the authorities that along the path and indicated where the glacier was ending in the past, explaining on the way that the glacier will eventually disappear soon if we don't dramatically reduce our carbon emissions. The irony of this is that one reading the sign can at the same time enjoy the numerous helicopter sounds doing the shuttle between the valley and the glacier generating noise and atmospheric pollution.
My rant will however stop here, and I will let you enjoy the views here below. The various more or less complicated hikes in the area are very nice and well indicated, too bad that the weather was so grey that day. I was also lucky to meet on the way a couple of Americans who just retired and spent their first vacation since retirement visiting New Zealand and did a couple hikes/walks with them that day...
The path stops here. No way to go further, besides with the help of a chopper...
After the main glacier walk, we decided to do another short walk, in the forest this time...
Reflection pond on the Glacier
And with the other camera...
Another day, another bridge...
After a good 3 hours of walking I wanted to see something else and have my picnic near the sea nearby rather than on the parking lot... so I started another 30 min driving. But the fatigue and the straight empty road (after a series of mountainy curves) helping, I felt asleep and ended up in some sort of ditch. Thank god, nothing happened, I woke up immediately as I went offroad, I was not driving very fast, there were no other cars and ground was stable so I was able to get out after getting my adrenaline shock ! But that episode certainly gave me a good lesson !
I was lucky that the road was empty and the ditch not very low !
The cows certainly gave me the look...
I eventually reached the sea by 16.20 after a good 15 min driving on an unpaved road and had a very late, but well deserved lunch !
You've reached your destination !
There was a backyard next to the beach parking lot with a small hiking trail and got to play a bit with the drone.
I cannot really remember the explanations I read about those corroded pipes...
View from above
On the way back to Franz Joseph village, I stopped at another view point where I continued playing with the drone and play more with the active track, but unfortunately, the clouds prevented me to get nice shots...
A well deserved dinner !
Day 4: Lake Matheson and the drive to Queenstown...
After a good night sleep I woke up with for once a clear weather on the mountain. Unfortunately it did not last long and once I arrived at the various view points and my destination for the morning, Lake Matheson, the sky covered again...
Lake Matheson is known to be, at least on clear and non-windy days, the perfect postcard picture of new zealand as the Glaciers reflect perfectly on the lake. The day I was there, there was a slight breeze and the sky was not that clear... so while the pictures were nice, I won't be getting the perfect one on this trip !
Suspended bridge on Lake Matheson trail
Lake Matheson trail
That's where you can get "the view of the views"...
... but not today !
Well, at the end of the walk, I was still able to zoom towards a small cloud opening...
That's the best I got !
After the walk I went back to the car and started to drive south to Queenstown, and the drive was expected to be pretty long (like 4 or 5 hours IIRC). I was feeling a bit nervous following the small incident I experienced the day before but fortunately (for me and for them), right at the exit of Fox Glacier village, I found 3 German teenagers hitch-hiking. I never take hitch-hikers, at least in Europe. But in NZ, it felt very natural that for whatever reason I stopped without thinking. The only condition I told them : We stop on the way if we find some nice spots. To which they indeed agreed...
And some nice spots on the way there were... (And some heavy rain too...)
Kinghts point lookout
Buckle-up kids !
Roaring billy falls, started to rain quite badly while we were walking...
Thunder creek falls
Lake Wanaka
"The neck", between Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea
Lake Wanaka, In the town of Wanaka where I dropped the two girls.
While the German guy wanted to go until Queenstown, the ladies initially wanted to stop in the small town of Haast for the night. But when we got there the weather was just terrible (and there was literally not much to do in town anyway) so they decided to continue the ride until Wanaka.
We reached Queenstown at the end of the day, and arrived right before another big storm. We had all types of weather in those 5 hours drive really !
"Cardrona bra fence", Somewhere between Wanaka and Queenstown
View on Queenstown
Well at least I did not fall asleep with those kids in the car and did my good samaritan by driving them to their destination. I spent the next couple days visiting Queenstown and the area and slept in the comfortable Holiday Inn Queenstown during this time. But that's for later...!