New Zealand TranzAlpine Train To Upper West Cost Fun @ Punekeiki 26Dec22

We arose super early for an Uber ride to the train station to board the NZ TranzAlpine train to Greymouth on the west coast. It was a clear and gorgeous viewing day on the train which hopped the Southern Alps via Alfred's Pass ~ when it got steep enough near the top (a long tunnel through) we picked up two extra engines for the tasks! The rainfall east of the divide is 1.5M/yr and on the west side it's 5M/yr! The Greymouth area where we landed is the dairy area of the south island ~ I can attest to that industry here as I followed two milk-filled, double-tanker semis for 40KM south from Greymouth to a port south later. We saw the northern part of the Southern Alps rise as we headed west ~ we passed Deception Valley where the mail rail line architect was duped when running the east > west route. We stopped for a stretch at Arthur's Pass before heading into the tunnel and down the western slop. The train had headsets dealing NZ factoids.

We rolled into Greymouth about 1pm and faced a 1 hour queue at the Avis counter for our car, but finally we scored our grey Mitsubishi Outlander as our ride for the next 10 days ~ I think they parsed our full 10 day drive around the S Island and gave us the 56KM mileage bomber. Our 1st west coast stay was in Punakeiki where we had an ocean view, but super hot room. They brought a fan after Kala asked if there was airco ~ sweet move ~ the room quickly cooled. We had a cool spot with views from the deck and immediate access to a nice beach with western sunsets. We soon walked up to our 1st hike in the area, Pancake Rocks. This was a great stop with weird layered rock formations and keen fauna. Only a couple miles but cool Natl Pk area again... I caught some flax blooms about to pop (and yeah, those stalks are like century plants with walking staff ruggedness but super light like balsa) and I caught some hydrangeas in early bloom.

We hiked along the road to "The Tavern" for decent burger and fish & chips, and in doing so passed weird rock formations and some honeysuckle. There is rarely color other than green in NZ and when there it, it's noticeable. So yeah, here too is an outstanding hillside of palms and their tiny coconuts (that's all the bigger they get in NZ, on any palm). On the way back to the hotel we hit the Punakeiki Cavern NP and I took a pic of our room.

After a smidge of rest we headed down to the Punakaiki Beach directly in front of room. It was a rough small pebbles beach with a river returning to the ocean, more examples of pancake rocks, Kala with a big hydrangea plant, a big fresh water eel, a cool driftwood walking staff I spied for Kala, strange hanging rock with moss along the river, and a couple of kids on the beach for sunset.

Punakeiki was awesome but there's one more hike tomorrow before heading to Glacierland.