2021 South Island trip

Up at 7, anxious to get confirmation that our bus was coming, because neither of the Saturday buses had made it down from Westport, which was getting hammered by the weather.  And the Sunday bus didn't make it either, as the roads in/out of Westport were closed, and I think they evacuated 2,000 people, or half the town.  At this point, I pulled the plug on the bus and looked around for other options.  There were no hire cars to be had for love nor money - not that I was particularly keen to drive the mountain road back over, even assuming we could get all the way across - so we searched around for alternatives and discovered there was an airport at Hokitika which flew to Christchurch twice a day.  This was infinitely superior to the ghastly bus, although between the flights and the extra nights' accommodation, it basically doubled the cost of our entire trip and the credit card took a battering from which it will be slow to recover.  But the alternative seemed t...

In the morning we were joined by Bob the cat.  Bob was a fluffy (once he/she dried off) black cat who came in, sat peacefully on whoever was nearest, and then wandered off again once there was nothing to eat.  We packed up and drove slowly back to Greymouth.  The road was open, thank goodness, and not too bad, though it was still raining. Still, the trip was nearly over, so we wandered around the shops and rather let ourselves go in the pounamu jewellery shop, on the grounds that we'd saved the money from the tour, so it was fine, really.  Then we dropped off the key to our hire car (like fools!) and went across to check in for the return trip on the Tranzalpine, only to find that the train had been turned back due to a slip on the rails. "How are we supposed to get back to Christchurch?" I asked, and the woman at the "help" desk shrugged and said "nothing's getting out tonight.  We've put on two buses tomorrow morning to get people back".  I t...

Safely, if damply, in Greymouth, we picked up our car and dumped the luggage in it.  Then we needed to find somewhere dry to lurk until the last of the motion sickness wore off.  Coming to the rescue, as always, was the local library, so we recuperated there before venturing back out into the deluge.  Had some lunch, looked at some gorgeous pounamu jewellery, and headed off up the coast to the pancake rocks at Punakaiki. We got there at 3.55 and the pancake cafe closed at 4, which was disappointing.  I had googled them and seen "dinner menu" so assumed they'd be open later.  Only in Summer, apparently.  Though to be fair, the drive was a bit windy and nobody really wanted to eat.  It had stopped raining (mostly), so we went and walked around the rocks. Someone has clearly put some time and effort into the path.  It was very well laid out, easy to walk on even if you were in a moonboot, and only one tricky bit down some rock-cut steps.  It wou...

Thursday, and the planned highlight of our trip!  Tranzalpine to Greymouth, returning on Friday.  I scheduled this so we weren't going there and back in one long day, and in case the weather was bad, in which case I hoped to have two opportunities for photos. Started well, the day was clear and there were good views of snow-topped mountains.  I spent a happy half hour heading into Arthur's Pass taking photos from the open air carriage.  It was busy, but not heaving.  Most people took up a position on one side or the other, which worked fairly well.  We would look jealously at the other side if they were getting better views, and feel smug when our own side was the superior one.  The photos, sadly, are not great.  The sky was white/grey so there's not a lot of contrast.  Why should things look so lovely in person and not when you take photos of them?  It's obviously the fault of my camera.  I shall buy a new and better one immediatel...

Lovely sister-in-law picked us up from the airport and drove us around.  We met her partner and dog, and on the second day had a home-cooked meal for which the nephews turned up, the eldest with a girlfriend whom we dubbed Nice Holly to distinguish her from - well, you can guess.  Skyped Grandad in Australia, which was nice. During the day, we went out shopping, where I succumbed to a pair of shoes but resisted the gorgeous mohair blanket (they were roughly the same price and I needed the shoes more!).  We wandered around the central city and found some Ben&Jerry's so the children were happy.  We did have to let the driver choose the music and I'm sorry to say her musical taste aligns more closely with the 17-year-old's than mine.  One particular song had the lyrics "I really really really really really really like you".  This drove Greg crackers, so we have been amusing ourselves ever since with such witty comments as "do you really really really reall...

Having had our plans for a European Christmas scuppered, we moved on to Seeing The Town Before We Left The Country and planned a trip down South to ride the Tranzalpine and see the family.  Or, to see the family and ride the Tranzalpine, depending on who is reading this... Wanting to see snow on the mountains, we opted to go in Winter.  This would come back to bite us, although not literally like the midgies who would apparently have swarmed had we chosen a Summer trip.  So there's always something!  In our case, it was a "Red" Weather Event, the likes of which had never been seen (or had been seen three times in the last hundred years, depending on which media you follow). This meant that our planned trip of Christchurch - Tranzalpine - Punakaiki - Overnight in Barrytown - Pounamu Tour - Tranzalpine back - Fly hom e became Christchurch - Tranzalpine - Punakaiki - Overnight in Barrytown - Violent Weather Closes Roads - Cancel Pounamu Tour - Discover Tranzalpine isn't...