Day 9 and 10. Happy to receive the package from queenstown finally. Reunion with my watch. Then on the way to Shanty town! Nice town. Like those in the children's story book. gold mining town in the late 1800s. Took a train which runs on steam engine to the end-of-the-line and to the sawmill. Then there were demonstration on how gold panning and sluicing is done. Tough work n water is essential to the gold miners. Spent the morning roaming abt the town. There is a cafe, printing room for their daily news feeds, church, hospital, traders post, masons hall and many more. Very small and cosy town.
Due to track maintenance, we have to take the coach to arthur's pass where we will then transfer to the tranzalpine train back to christchurch. Along the way, enjoying the nature as much as possible, streaks of ice on the grey peaks glistened brightly in the summer sun against the clear blue sky with few clouds today. Boarded the train and i got to do my fav activity, staring out the window as the train moved thru the land from the west to the east crossing mountains and the almost dried up rivers. The mountains seemed bald with its grey top, a dark green layer sandwiched betw the grey and the brownish yellow bottom strip. The grey streamed downslope from the top, randomly, as if a huge giant is blowing at the grey top with a straw. They loomed in, covering 90% of the train window. all the others concussed. They missed the magnificent views.
If u look out carefully, there is always something new every 100m. A baby lamb chasing after its mother, small red plants appearing out of no where, bridges, tunnels, deep deep valleys when u look over the edge, weird looking pokey plants which look like a slimmer version of the corn, dried up twigs and few mysteriously felled trees among other healthy looking ones, no clouds for a long long distance, river meandering thru with its white banks, farnie looking trees with leaves look like trident or chicken feet, weird breed of cows named belties which look like tapir and the list goes on. There many unique things really, besides the weka, there is the endemic tuatara, the kekeno, the super sour feijoa and apple smoothie, the super nice hoki bites, hokey pokey ice cream and of cos the maori. Very interesting language, somehow like it after the japanese language.
The train moved over flatter land and past springfield which has neatly trimmed hedges demarcating plots of fields. A brown and a white horse gallop alongside the moving train. Next thru sheffield and darfield, rolleston and then finally entered christchurch. Waited for the motel pick up. So it is owned by a chinese couple who bought it in 2011. We left our luggage and went gallivanting in town. Saw the cordoned off areas which are still under construction after the earthquake and its tremors. Like grd zero in nyc. They got the shopping cluster shops named restart. Very interesting. Built out of containers. Nice design. But most of the shops are closed! So early lo, do they close at 6? Its tuesday leh. Ate ramen at a japanese restaurant run by japanese i suppose, from their looks and their conversations. Yummilicious! A good half an hr back to the motel. Cold at first, due to contrast after hot food under shelter. But when we got used to it, what a nice stroll. The last evening in such nice weather.
Next morning back to Restart and the shops are open, browse thru the stuff and noticed again other than the containers, the potted plants alongside the streets have the soil in big truck tyres. Brunch in christchurch, a croissant and moccha at the craft coffee company. The walk to n fro the motel seemed never ending under the hot scorching sun.
10 min late for the airport shuttle. And jus as we are leaving, merv jus has to clock another "the boy" incident. Internal joke n really amusing to me. First in queenstown, he was remembered as the sunscreen boy as sun blocking his arm makes no diff with the long sleeved wet suit jacket. Pointed out by the activity guide. Then in fox : where is the cold one? Is he alright? Cos he was refused a second heater in the room. And in franz : ooohh, he got his shoes wet. Exclaimed by someone behind when we were crossing the river. I bet he cant feel his toes anymore. Then finally in christchurch : excuse me, i'll drive. Exclaimed the driver after she packed our luggages up the minivan as he went the other way round the vehicle. What a farnie way to say where the door is. He jus have to be anti stealth. And off we left for the airport, reluctantly.
