New Zealand

Christchurch #1 | 13 Nov 2006

Our first stop in New Zealand was Christchurch which is the capital city of the south island. We only had one night in Christchurch so didn't really get the chance to have much of a look around but from what we did see it seemed very much like England! In fact you could almost liken it to somewhere like Cambridge as you can even do punting on the River Avon!
The following day we left Christchurch via the TranzAlpine railway which is apparently one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world. It travels from Christchurch straight through the Southern Alps to Greymouth which is on the west coast. The scenery was fantastic but the only problem was that it absolutely poured down the majority of the journey! In fact it was one of the worst down pours they'd had in ages as it flooded all the rivers and a few roads got washed out as well. By the time we got to Greymouth it was on the news! Unfortunately the rain meant that visibility was pretty low so we couldn't see quite as much as you prehaps could on a clear day but it was still very impressive. Because there was so much rain it created lots of waterfalls which were cool. There were outdoor viewing platforms on the train so we stood out there and watched the countryside fly past but it was absolutely freezing and of course very wet! It was a very enjoyable journey though and had the weather been clear the view of the mountains would have been fantastic, oh well, maybe next time! As we were only in Christchurch for one night, we don't have any photos to add to the album, but we will do when we have a couple of days here at the end of our time in New Zealand.

Locations Visited: Christchurch

No images uploaded to album.

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