Day 17: Greymouth to Christchurch

Scottie’s Story

Time to do the train journey back to Christchurch. The train was not due to depart until early afternoon, so we went for a leisurely stroll out of town and near to the sea. The sun was shining, so we took full advantage of some outside time. A quick coffee stop once we got back to Greymouth and then it was time to hop on the train.

This time the weather was a bit kinder, at least for the first part of the journey. The train was really quiet so it was announced that folk could move to the empty carriages if they wanted to change seats. We decided to move, but then had to move again when a loud group of passengers “invaded” our nice quiet space. It was a bit disconcerting that the train has to stop 2 or 3 times for an engineer to check the brakes – erk. Luckily the journey continued and we were only a wee bit later into Christchurch than planned.

Not much really to say about the day – we walked a bit, sat on a train and headed back home for snacks and sleep.

Rob’s Reflections

And now for the reverse of yesterday’s journey. We had a morning to kill, but were able to check out luggage in early. Went for a wander to the beach, which was very cobbly, then took in a restored WW2 pillbox. This had found itself in poor repair, and landlocked after changes to the shoreline. They restored it using as much original material as possible, adding in recreated components and moving to near the pier.

On the walk back to town noticed that New Zealand Belisha Beacons are very 2-D – instead of a globe they have a flat piece of material oriented in the direction of road traffic. Walked back past our hotel which was apparently the tallest building in Greymouth at six stories. Finally a trip to Woolworths – no relation to our late lamented UK brand, but an Antipodean equivalent to Sainsbury’s.

Train journey took a little longer than expected – had to stop several times to check the brakes! We took advantage of the light loading to move to an empty carriage at the back, where we could stretch out and relax.