On Monday 5th April we left Franz Josef Glacier at 6:45 and drove up the West Coast to Greymouth, passing through Ross and Hokitita. At Greymouth, we dropped off the car and boarded the TranzAlpine Express train to cross the Southern Alps back to Christchurch. It took 4 1/2 hours and we got some excellent views of some very beautiful scenery.

We left Greymouth at 1:45 p.m. and the train slowly climbed through the alps before stopping to couple up to two more locomotives to take us through the Otira rail tunnel, which is very long and steep.

We emerged from the tunnel and stopped at Arthur's Pass, the highest point of the route, where the extra locos were dropped off.

Then we travelled down the other side through some amazing alpine scenery...

...arriving in Christchurch just after sunset.

The next morning, we were up again bright and early for the next leg of our train adventure, this time heading north to Picton, via Kaikoura.

More beautiful scenery north of Christchurch, before the line reached the coast. Glorious sunshine and more spectacular scenery.

We arrived in Picton just after lunch.