Day 46: The Kiwi Rail — Matt Goes Exploring

Today starts the first of two days of mostly traveling, but that does not mean I won’t get to see anything spectacular.

The Kiwi Rail from Greymouth to Christchurch took me through the Southern Alps (not the European Alps, this is the name for the mountain range that goes down the middle of New Zealand’s southern island). From the west coast we traveled through the valleys of the mountains, up into the snowy mountains.

There were seventeen total tunnels on the trip and after the longest one the train pulled into Arthur’s Pass. We had reached out highest point of elevation that day, and everyone got the chance to step off the train for a few minutes. I can now say that in late July I have thrown a snowball. And not one that I saved in the freezer for six months.

The snow covered train station in the mountains.

The stop in Arthur’s Pass had something special about it. Everyone on the train was probably in asimilar position to me, visiting from the northern hemisphere, so to them July had always meant summer. Kids and adults alike were running around the train platform tossing snowballs. It couldn’t help but put a smile on your face.

The train had a great informational audio guide throughout the whole trip. At certain intervals a tv screen would alert you that audio was going to start soon. I plugged the complementary headphones into the arm of the seat and listened to the information about the scenery we were passing. It was great to have information and be able to look out the window and see what it was talking about.

This may not be too interesting to everyone else, but the guide had a lot of information about the wildlife in New Zealand, particularly the vegetation. This was particularly interesting because both sides of the alps are so vastly different. On the western side (where I’ve been the past few days) there is a lot more rainfall because the mountains block the clouds that form from the Tasman Sea (I learned what it was called). So with most of the rain falling west of the mountains, the forest becomes a rainforest, very wet. Alternatively on the east, with significantly less rainfall, the forest is very dry and temperate.

What blew me away the most was when we descended from the mountains into the flat grasslands east of the mountains. I learned that ninety nine percent of the vegetation living in this part of New Zealand is introduced from Europe. I think it said that no other place in the world has gone through such change with the introduction of humans.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself chronologically. The train had a viewing deck at the end that anyone could step out to. It wasn’t just a deck, it had sides and a roof, it just had open windows that gave you a clear view of the area. I made my way out to the viewing deck pretty much as soon as I found out it existed. The wind was cold but I got a great view of the mountains as we moved through the valleys. I’ll share a few of those photo’s here:

The window from the viewing car, to give you a better visual.

After riding through the eastern grasslands, all the farms, sheep, and cows, the train pulled into Christchurch. This is the southern island’s biggest city, but I’m just staying here for the night before I fly to Auckland tomorrow.

So you won’t hear much about my Christchurch adventures.

But here’s one thing I did tonight. I walked to the hotel next door to get dinner, and I was able to get a very specific order because people here speak English. There was a “chicken & bacon” burger and I was able to ask if it had beef or not. It didn’t, so I could eat it. I then also ordered it without the cheese and tomato. So thank goodness for being able to communicate easily. That was probably the toughest part of Europe. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but it’s still very nice when I have so many food allergies to worry about.

Alright, that’s all I got for today, check out my Instagram @mattgoesexploring for some extra photos and videos over the last few days if you haven’t yet.

A shameless self-plug, that’s my apology for writing a short post today. Oh boy.

Thanks for reading and here’s to tomorrow.