The Tranz Alpine railway

Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of our entire trip was a train ride on the TranzAlpine railway. We had picked this out as one of the things we definitely wanted to do, so our driving route around the island made sure we could end up at one of the starting points for the route. Greymouth was this place for us.

Our route was something like this:

Our train left at 1:45 PM. The ride back to Christchurch is about 5 hours, but ours took a little bit longer because of an electrical outage. That was OK with us because it meant more time on the train!

The weather on the west side of the mountains started out pretty rainy.

Some of us had a little snooze while there wasn't much of a view.

There were lots of crossings where you could wave to people

Around the middle of the journey, there is a massive mountain range called Arthur's Pass. Instead of going over or around, the train goes through an 8 kilometer long tunnel into the mountain. During the tunnel part of the ride, you can't leave your car or go out into the viewing car. So we took a tunnel selfie.

We got a stop at the Arthur's Pass station after coming out of the tunnel. We were able to get out of the train and stretch our legs for a minute. It was freezing cold, however, so everyone was easily back on the train before it pulled away from the station!

And after crossing the mountain range, the weather changed completely. It was gorgeous!!

The train route followed the Waimakariri River for most of the way into Christchurch, making for amazing views.

The wild lupin was in full bloom along the river too.  We later learned that these flowers are considered a pest in New Zealand because they can lead to erosion around the riverbanks and can providing hiding spots for bird predators. But they are really beautiful!

The ride was sooo beautiful, I could post about 4,000 pictures that I took. Instead, here's just a few more of my favorites.