Hello World,

I am currently blogging from the adventure (read Tourist) capital of New Zealand. I have had a blast these past few days and have learned even more about myself.

So I stayed the second night in the hostel in a four bedroom share. The Germans in the room (like 50% of the backpackers are German. There are a lot) were both leaving and I packed my bag for the next mornings early trip.

I got up and waited outside for the shuttle after having some AMAZING Hot Cross Buns. It was fairly cold outside. The shuttle was free (arranged by the Hostel) so that was really nice. The ride to the train station (about 20 mins) was uneventful. I got to the Train station in plenty of time and by now I knew the routine.

The TranzAlpine runs from Christchurch in the east to Greymouth in the West. It was a long train, the longest by close to 2 so far. I was on the front train facing backwards. I met and had good conversation with an Aussie couple sitting across from me. The scenery in the low lands was nice with beautiful golden rolling hills and farmland/graze land.

As we went into the mountains I headed to the observation car because I like to ride in the open Air compartments. It was amazing being out there and seeing, smelling, and feeling everything. I got some great shots of the scenery. Luckily I got to the open car before the mob of Asian (Mitsubishi company sponsored) tourists did.

I rode outside for most of the trip and came inside occasionally to warm up. It was cool being up in the mountains and riding through the low lying clouds. The scenery was beautiful with the mountains and the cows and the grass had one of the best deep greens I have ever seen. I hope the pictures do it justice.

I got off at Greymouth and waited for the bus to arrive to take me to Glacier Country. While there I dashed into subway to get a quick hot meal. I was dissapointed to find that they had no basil, oregano, or mozzarella, and the lady put lettuce on my meatball sub. It was an interesting experience. I loaded the bus with no Problem after scarfing down my sub (no eating on the bus).

We stopped in a little town about 45 minutes out of Greymouth. It was cool because it was a town that I had wanted to stop at and was defintely glad we did. They had lots of tourist shops as well as a couple jade/greenstone/ponamu and glass factories. These were neat to see, especially the glass.

TBC