From Coast To Coast

Last weekend, we made our second trip from the East Coast to the West Coast of the South Island here in New Zealand.

The first time, we did the trip in the dead of winter on the "Tranz Alpine" train route (which absolutely lives up to its billing as one of the top 10 train rides in the world). This time, we did it on a lovely spring/early summer day by car to go to Megan's mom's house for lunch.

The trip is roughly 220 km [~140 miles] long each way and takes about 3 hours coast-to-coast, if you're not driving with Americans with a camera.

1. The trip starts at sea level in Christchurch (that's the library a 10 minute walk from our house)...

2. ... Crosses the plains of Canterbury, as shown in winter (the plains on our second trip were green and gold, and literally dotted with sheep)...
3. ...Heads up the Southern Alps (these are just the foothills pictured)...

4. ...Goes through Arthur's Pass, as shown in July (the woman in red was on our train, and made for the perfect picture!) and December ...

5. ... Pretty much plummets down the mountain on the west side: the train takes the 8.5 km Otira Tunnel (not pictured); the cars take the 16% grade Otira Viaduct (shown below), which despite looking treacherous itself is an attractive alternative to the still present "narrow, winding, dangerous road that [is] prone to avalanches, slips, and closures" ...

6. .... Emerges out on the green, wet, West Coast side of the mountains ...

7. ... Passes by Brunner Lake, with its amazing rainforest-type vegetation (the photo with the snow was taken from the train in July, the others were taken a week ago) ...

7. ... And ends where the Greymouth River meets the Tasman Sea (what I always thought was the portion of the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Australia). We took this picture on the return trip, you can see the Southern Alps in the distance.