DAY 10-TRANZ ALPINE EXPRESS-CHRISTCHURCH

a view from the train

Last day of the wonderful trip in this amazing country called New Zealand and you only wish it had been longer. We were asked to be in the foyer of the hotel by 915 am which simply meant we did not have to get up really early. It was a nice cool morning in the glacier region and after a nice heavy breakfast and packing we were waiting at the foyer for the bus to arrive. We departed from the glacier region and travelled further north along the rugged west coast to greymouth. The journey took us through some spectacular countryside with the rough Tasman sea to the west and the stunning Southern Alps to the east. 

in conversation with bro about earthquake

The journey took us through the goldrush sites of new Zealand were at one point of time a lot of people travelled here and dug ground in pursuit of gold. We reached greymouth town at 1230 pm . we were at freedom to do some shopping or catch some snacks before alighting our train at 115pm, we just walked around the sleepy town of greymouth and found a Indian restaurant called Priya. We packed a couple of chicken biryani for lunch and came back to the place where the bus was parked and had our stomach fool sitting on public bench. The biryani was just yum . the bus started at 1 pm and made its way to the greymouth train station where we were to catch the Tranz Alpine Express to Christchurch. The train station looked like any other train station in india but the security and the system inside was similar to the airport standards in india. We had to check in our luggage an we could carry only handbag into the cabin while rest of the luggage goes into one cargo compartment and the whole thing works the way it does in an airport.

the wonderful train 

awesome view

food aboard the train

 The Tranz Alpine Express is described as THE GREAT NEW ZEALAND RAIL ADVENTURE and is rated as one of the top six scenic train journeys in the world. It ascends through lush beech forests past the beautiful Lake Brunner via the alpine village of Arthurs Pass situated 737 meters above sea level, before crossing the spectacular southern alps, the tranz alpine then winds its way over massive viaducts through spectacular river gorges and the \stunning Waimakiriri River valley . The train was a beauty by itself  reminiscent of the palace on wheels of India with plush luxury seats, wonderful upholstery, nice big glass windows to get a good view and a mouth watering menu on offer in the pantry.  The journey was indeed one of the most scenic journeys ever as we pass  through breath taking locations and mountains and really high bridges and green landscapes. The public adressal system on train makes sure that  the captain of train keeps us informed about the places and info that make sure that we don’t miss out on anything. We were midway through the journey when my brother Vishal shenoy called from Australia to find out if we were safe.. we had no clue what had happened until he told us that Christchurch where we were heading to had just had an earthquake of intensity 7.3 on richter scale. Christchurch earlier that year had a massive earthquake which had  virtually destroyed the whole city and had killed over 3000 people. This was the first aftershock of such high magnitude and the fear was that there will be a deadlier one soon. Everyone in the train in no time came to know about the shock. And everyone was out with their ipads and Iphones trying to get more info from the internet. The  most shocking info for us was the airport was closed after the quake. We had a flight to catch at 4 am the next morning and airport getting closed meant a lot of problems.the train captain then explained the situation to us that the quake was a major one and we did not feel it much as we were passing through a 10 km long tunnel which is carved out of a huge rocky mountain. The train was asked to travel atmuch slower speed which meant a delay of almost 90 minutes. The train then finally arrived at the Christchurch station. We collected our luggage and soon met the  chauffeur who had come to pick us up. We asked him if we were safe in Christchurch and he said I have been here all my life.. what do you think?. We had no answer , he said what you see in media is a extrapolated picture and the condition on ground zero is not that bad after all. He dropped us to the chataeu on the park hotel which was as awesome as any other hotel we had stayed during the entire journey. 

After checking in , we tried contacting the different hotels for food but most of them had been destroyed after the first earthquake. We then took a walk down the streets to find a restaurant called ELEPHANT which was a nepali restaurant . we had some indo nepali food and got back to the hotel . we had to catch a flight early in the morning next day and it only made sense tohit the  bed soon and catch some sleep……..