New Zealand, Arthur's Pass: Coast-to-Coast Train Journey over the Southern Alps

We saw many beautiful snow-capped mountains during our TranzAlpine rail journey
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The TranzAlpine day return trip that we had booked at the Kaikoura I-Site (information centre) started at the Christchurch railway station and finished at Greymouth's railway station before travelling back across New Zealand's South Island. The rail journey travelled across the expansive patchwork of Canterbury Plains' farmland, wound through the spectacular gorges of the Waimakariri River, and climbed the mighty Southern Alps of New Zealand by taking a route through Arthur's Pass. After passing through the Southern Alps, the train descended into lush native beech forest and stopped in the coastal town of Greymouth for an hour before making its way back east to Christchurch.

The views from our carriage were amazing, as the train travelled along the Waimakariri River
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All of that amazing scenery was included in the ticket price for the 9-hour day journey; we were fortunate to have received a discount when we booked our tickets, so we only paid $130 (that's around £50, or $100 USD each) for each ticket, compared to the original ticket price of $198 NZD (that's around £76, or $152 USD each). It was fortunate that we booked our tickets through the I-Site the day before because we may not have been granted a discount if we would have booked the trip ourselves over the telephone, or if we would have just shown up in Christchurch on the morning of the journey to purchase tickets.

The train passed through a tunnel that was over 5 miles in length, at Otira Gorge, and we were granted some of the most impressive views at that point

All aboard! When it was time to get back on the train after a brief stop at Arthur's Pass, Kyle had to have this classic photo taken
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Arthur's Pass National Park was the South Island's first National Park and the alpine rainforest there still thrives today. The first half of our journey from Christchurch had been in glorious spring weather, with a clear blue sky and very few clouds, but, as we approached the Southern Alps and crossed over them, clouds had begun to gather thickly and it started raining. The west coast of the South Island normally received a lot more rain than the east coast and we were disappointed with the poor weather at Arthur's Pass because we couldn't take very many nice photos.

Just so there was no confusion, Dan pointed out the correct train we were going to ride on to visit Arthur's Pass
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We had driven to Christchurch the previous evening and booked ourselves into a somewhat dodgy holiday park that was conveniently located a few minutes' walk from the railway station. Addington Accommodation Park Ltd was not somewhere we would recommend to others, but it was good that we only had a short walk to make our train, which left early in the morning at 8:15am. When we checked in half an hour early and then boarded the train, we were immediately comfortable in our spacious seats; before the train departed, we had asked to switch our seats for ones at a table, so we could work on our travel journal during the journey back from Greymouth.

The sky at Arthur's Pass had become cloudy and it even rained a little bit when we disembarked from the train for a few minutes to stretch our legs
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There were large windows in the train carriages enabling everyone to have excellent views from both sides of the train. A few carriages up from ours was an open-air viewing platform that allowed better picture-taking facilities. While it was nice to take pictures of the scenery there, that carriage was always really crowded with other tourists and we tried to avoid hanging out in it because it was too stressful and we just wanted to relax during the journey. There was also a dining carriage that we took advantage of a couple of times, by eating some snacks and drinking coffees throughout the day.

Throughout the train journey, the landscape changed several times, offering up a multitude of different scenes
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During the journey, the train passed through a tunnel that was over 5 miles in length, at Otira Gorge, and we were granted some of the most impressive views at that point. After we exited the tunnel, we saw huge snow-capped mountains standing guard over Lake Brunner when the train travelled through the small settlement of Moana. For a large portion of the trip, the train travelled along the 93-mile long, ice-fed Waimakariri River, an impressive sight as the river often flowed in gorges between steep mountains, and was also very wide in sections. During the course of the journey, the train travelled over at least 18 viaducts and went through several tunnels that had been carved through the mountains.

Throughout the train journey, the landscape changed several times, offering up a multitude of different scenes
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Throughout the journey, we spoke to some fellow passengers on board, but we avoided a lot of people because there were many large tour groups that we didn't want to associate with that day. One couple we did speak to who were from Dallas, Texas, had brought their bicycles and were taking a couple of weeks to ride south down the east coast from Greymouth. They were decked out in bright yellow windbreaker jackets and skimpy, tight spandex bicycle shorts, so they stood out quite a bit. We were surprised, however, when we saw the same couple a week and a half later, and a few hundred miles south, riding up a mountain that we were descending as we made our way to Fox Glacier from Wanaka.

Many of the mountainsides and hillsides we passed were covered with yellow flowers, causing a nice effect
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Since only about 1 million people live on the South Island, much of the island was deserted and the roads were very quiet. You can imagine our shock to see someone we had met in a completely different part of the island nine days earlier! Besides the couple from Dallas, we also chatted for quite a while with a friendly, older Australian couple from Sydney who were doing a three-week package tour of New Zealand that allowed them some self-drive time. We ended up seeing them again in Queenstown a week later, but we were inside a cafe and didn't bother to walk out and say hello to them because it was too much of an effort.

The Waimakariri River flowed through many gorges and was impressive
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The TranzAlpine journey has been heralded as one of the world's best train journeys. We would have to agree that the incredible beauty witnessed throughout our day on the train contributed to that factor, and we'd recommend the journey to anyone else interested in crossing the South Island in a similar fashion. If you want to cross fertile farmlands, enjoy thrilling vistas over deep gorges and viaducts, and observe towering, angular snow-capped mountains on either side of you, then that journey was meant for you.