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Tranzalpine Train and Christchurch
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So, we took the Tranzalpine Train to Christchurch, which took a route across New Zealand through Arthur's Pass. It is ranked as one of the top six train journeys in the world and it definitely didn't disapppoint! Although, I would recommend travelling on it when there is snow up there as it was very dry and arid because this has been New Zealand's driest summer in 20 years. Anyways, the train journey was fab, totally unlike anything I have ever been on before and again the photos definitely do not do it justice! And we also met two gorgeous American ladies on it, Carol and Heidi so we had an absolute blast. In the morning, we checked in our luggage, yes, that's right, we had to check-in our luggage going on to a train!! It seems we don't do anything right in Ireland, no lugging on shed loads of luggage for the Kiwis! So after that nice surprise, we settled down on a really comfortable carraige. We can't tell you much more about the train as it was a train after all, but have a look at the photos and you will see for yourselves!
When we hit Christchurch, there was a conveyer belt right on the platform, exactly like what you would see at an airport, with our luggage on it! It was nuts! Anyways we shared a taxi with the two Americans into town and when we got to our hotel, we had a lovely surprise waiting for us, we got a free upgrade to an executive studio!!!! The hotel/studio was fab, we had our own private balcony and everything, nice one, huh?!
Christchurch is lovely, it really is very restrained and British, you would swear you were in Oxford or somewhere posh like that. It has loads of little gardens and parks and is so clean and well kept. As we really only had a full day in Christchurch, which happened to be Valentine's Day, we went wandering and eventually ended up at the Botanic Gardens where we took a row boat out onto the river Avon. Yes that's really the name of it! Let's just say that rowing isn't as easy or relaxing as people make out, especially when you get stuck in the middle of the river as the water level was so low! But we had fun and gave a lot of people sitting on the banks a laugh as well!!!!
We took the tram and then went to see real live Kiwis in the Aquarium and wildlife centre. It was really cool to see real live Kiwis right there in front of us and they were strange little birds who also happened to get a bit frisky while we were there!!!! But unfortunately, we have no pictures of them as they are nocturnal so we were in pitch darkness. The next morning, we headed off early to the airport as the Antartic Centre is right next to it, so we dropped our luggage off at the airport and headed over. The Antartic Centre is fantastic, as you get to see how people survive down there and we went into this storm simulator where the simulate Artic Storm with winds of 40 mph and where the temperature dropped to minus 10 degrees!! We also saw some very cute penguins while we were there!! But we had to head off after that to catch our flight to Sydney!!
xxx J & A More thumbnails ...
Latest Comments (1)
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No Upgrade here (reply)
Feb 20, 2008 04:38 EST by frank.k
It looks like you had a real ball in New Zealand so there is only one way it can go from here. No doubt you will end up in a few parties in Sydney with the gang so you won't remember any of what happened. Time is moving on quickly and make the best of what is left.Pity you couldn't get to take a pic of the Kiwi.
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