OSUFlyer

Greetings,

I will be in NZ for about 1.5 weeks in March. I am planning to take a trip on either the TranzAlpine between Greymouth and CHC or the TranzCoastal from Picton to CHC.

Unfortunately I don't think I will have time for both due to other plans and I was curious if anyone has any experience or recommendations on the best option?

Philatravelgirl

I did both of these (enjoyed them both) in November so not sure about March. I think the Trans alpine was better because the scenery changed vs coast/water view. I liked the open air viewing car to take photos. In greymouth you can tour the pancake rocks and see the coast

methom90wh

The TranzAlpine is generally considered the best of the two.

March is getting towards the tail end of summer or early fall so it'll be a little cooler but still should be nice.

SpannerSpinner

Just did the Tranzalpine on the weekend just gone. Definitely worth doing, I will be going back sometime later in the year to do it when the mountains have a decent coating of snow. As mentioned above, you get a good range of scenery, from the coastal land just out of greymouth, then heading inland before heading into the alpine pass and finally emerging on the Canterbury plains for the last 45mins or so.

Be aware that Kiwirail uses IP geolocation to withhold the discount fares from people accessing the website from overseas, so you may wish to find a way to bypass that if you are certain of the date you wish to travel and don't need the flexibility to change bookings that comes with the higher fares.

As an example on March 17th Greymouth -> Chch i can see three fares on my work PC , (NZ$) 109, 169 & 199. (the cheaper $99 fare bucket is sold out already).

However accessing the website from my mobile via my cellular provider I see only the full price $199 fare bucket.

dirtydrift

I've never done the transcoastal(much to my wife's chagrin), but another vote for tranzalpine.

The way we did this trip was to fly into Hokatika, it's a beautiful prop plane flight over the Southern Alps. Then we hired a taxi into greymouth (though a night in Hokatika can be nice too), grabbed lunch and took the transalpine back.

Don't take the Akl to Wlgtn train, not worth it(IME).

OSUFlyer

Thanks you for the replies. I decided to book the Tranzalphine with an overnight in Greymouth, then fly out the next day from HKK.

Good advice "SpannerSpinner" regarding the IP geolocation pricing NZ Rail uses. Blocking my IP address saved around $100 USD/pp.

SpannerSpinner

No problem, always happy to help people avoid being extorted by unscrupulous operators.

Since you have time to kill in/around Greymouth, I'd suggest making time to head north to Punakaiki (home of the Pancake rocks & blowholes) if you enjoy watching large waves battering themselves against interesting rock formations, the rougher the seas are the better it is. Take sunscreen, and lunch/refreshments with you. (typical tourist trap cafes.. overpriced and poor quality food)

sokolov

I went on the Tranzalpine last month. I don't think it was worth neither the time nor the money. And I had received a substantial discount.

Go to any Alpine country, Austria, Switzerland, France, and take a train ride through some mountains there: Better scenery, more trains to choose from, and less cost. And less tourists, too. :-)

adampenrith

Tranz Alpine is better than the Trans Coastal.

The coastal part of the trip is north of Kaikoura, where the train line hugs the coast.

Nice trip but not as spectacular as the trip thru the Alps - and lake Brunner is awesome too