The route doesn't look too promising as it is past a very industrialised area, but we do eventually find a rather scruffy looking car park. The road seems to continue on up a slight incline and over the cycle path - whoops, we are actually on the beach! Nearly all of the beach is a steepish bank of pebbles, but there is a patch of sand just where the car is. Reverse before we are stuck.
After trying a few other beach access points we decide to head back to the breakwater. At least we know we can park and look at the sea there. The wind is still pretty strong, although it is not actually raining at the moment.
Do wind socks come with a Beaufort Scale rating depending on how horizontal they are?
Decamp from here to check in our suitcase and drop the hire car back after driving just over 4000km around the South Island. Come away with a recommendation for a good cafe and head there as we seem to have exhausted the wonders of Greymouth. A very pleasant place to while away a wee bit of time (the cafe, that is, not Greymouth itself). Not sure if we will have a late brunch but our mind is made up when we see on the menu a Freddie's Pancake Stack. It comes with bacon or banana or both so we have one of each. They even have newspapers to read. An hour and a half, and two cappuccinos later we decide we'd better leave. Off to the station - an hour to wait for the train.
Eric sits on the platform patiently waiting for the train to arrive.
Turns out he was looking the wrong way.
We board the train, all the seats have views and we have a table too. No-one sits opposite us - sigh of relief. There are headphones on the seat and there is a running commentary available which really enhances the trip.
Not too crowded in our carriage.
One of the first towns we pass is Stillwater which the commentary describes as a dormitory suburb of Greymouth. This raises a smile as given the extremely sleepy nature of Greymouth itself, we can only assume the everyone in Stillwater stays in bed all day. There's certainly little sign of life there from the train.
Cor, that's a lot of flax.
Those clouds are looking rather ominous.
Some views were on the opposite side of the train - getting up to photograph out of that window I forget that I'm still attached to the earphones, but manage a quick shot anyway as we speed along.
We reach Otira and are expecting to have to transfer to a coach here as we had a letter saying the tunnel was closed before we left for NZ. No announcement is forthcoming and the commentary explains that will be ascending 1metre for every 33 metres we are going forward, so we are going into the tunnel after all.
Aaagh, it's dark in here.
Out of the other side and we have built up a head of steam (well maybe not as it's a Diesel engine, but you know what I mean), so that the blurred photo is due to our speed not my bad photography - that's my excuse anyway.
We reach Arthur's Pass, the highest point of the journey. This part is purportedly incredibly scenic.
...hard
Scenic views pass by in the rain.
And fog.
What's this - some blue sky! (Still raining though).
We pass over quite a few viaducts. They have tall edges to protect the workers from cold winds. Some were built quite a long time ago - and there are pieces of wood that look like they need replacing! Worried look on face.
The river appears in a gorge below us, and has changed from a braided river with shingle to a one flowing through a silty sand mix. Honestly, this is a photo from the train not a wonky picture on someone's lounge wall.
This part of the river is known as Horseshore Bends.
You can see why.
We are now coming out of the mountains and can see the river passing out into the Canterbury Plains.
Looking back from whence we came.
Arriving in Christchurch, the station is about 3km from the City Centre. There are shuttle buses waiting as well as taxis - we hop on board a bus (much cheaper, and more familiar but still can't use our bus pass though). The lady driver says she will drop people at hotels in the city first before taking us out to ours, which is near the airport. The devastation from the earlier earthquakes and the amount of rebuilding is incredible.
It seems a bit gruesome to photograph it all so we just take the one picture of the boarded up Cathedral.
Many of the cities buildings are either waiting for demolition, have scaffolding around them, are vacant plots where they been removed, or in some cases a mangled mess of concrete and metal. The lady tells us that about 1400 buildings in the city centre need to be rebuilt. A rather ironic site is that of the old and new sections of the Heritage Hotel. The quake caused the new building to suffer so much damage it had to be demolished but the old one looks untouched. Driving along you have to look twice at the police HQ, at first it looks OK but then you notice a distinct lean (Pisa springs to mind). It's all boarded up and waiting for Fred Dibnah's team to arrive.
All activity in the business district was stopped and the only solution was to draft in hundreds of shipping containers for use as office space. Many of the water and sewage pipes were also ruptured and they had water bowsers at the end of streets for 18 months.
One hundred and eighty one people lost their lives, but it seems incredible looking around that the number was not many more. They suffered severe aftershocks for two years and it has had a huge impact on the economy.
After this free tour of the earthquake scene we reach the airport hotel for a meal and an evening sorting out our packing ready for the flight to Brisbane tomorrow.