This I did before Akora.
I overslept without realising. I had in my head the bus left at 7.45 to the train station. It was actually 7.25. I had to order a cab and leg it down there. I didn't get much sleep partly because of the wine and secondly because the germans were so loud trying to be quiet that their whispering was deafening. If that makes sense.
Anyway I managed to cath the train. Thank god as it was the priettiest scenery I have ever seen. Mountains caped with snow either side and the train passes in between. On the way you see lots of farm land and animals. At this point I hadn't seen many sheep. The light was a low warm winetrs lght great for photos.
The journey was 4 hrs there with a couple of stops and then a 15 min break and 4 hrs back. Arthurs pass was prietty. Nothing there just the station, you take a photo and go. There was a plot of land that looked derilict. A couple fell n love with the hotel there and thought they could do it up and make it into a working hotel. They didn't read the small print and ended up uying the whole twon which they now rent houses out or you can use them as summer houses. Lets say it's very remote.
There's not much to say about greymouth expecpt when I was there it was grey. I bought a maori jad neclace which has all sorts of superstission about it. Your not suppossed to buy one for yourself, it has to be a present. The guy in the shop said that's unless you really wanted one which I have done for years. Me being supersticous hope that he was right and not just trying to sell me something.
The return journey was the same but backwards and the weather had clouded over.
When I got to chrstchurch I got in a cab and went straight to the cinema to watch shrek 2 which I loved and is as good as the first just different. Infact I was the loudest person laughing out of the 3 people watching the film.
Next it was back to the hostel and a brief chat with john while watching TV. I discovered the germans were actually two sisters travelling and one of the sisters met a guy who left that night.
One of them was reading and kept the light on till early hrs and someone snored who I discovered was john. He has a snoring problem because of large tonsils and he's so embarrassed about it. So he apologised a lot and evemn told me he tried to tape his mouth shut one night to stop it. Poor guy.
Posted by alexd at August 3, 2004 10:14 AM