New Zealand Guide
Christchurch and south to Otago
Christchurch
With a population of over 300,000, CHRISTCHURCH is the largest city on the South Island and capital of the Canterbury region. It exudes a palpable air of gentility and a strong connection with the mother country. After all, it was founded as an outpost of Anglicanism by its first settlers, was named after an Oxford college, and has some of the feel of a traditional English university town, with its neo-Gothic architecture and gently winding river. To some extent it pursues an archetype – the boys at Christ's College still wear striped blazers, and punts slide along the Avon – but the Englishness is largely skin-deep. In recent years the traditional conservatism of the settlement has developed a youthful, bohemian edge, with an explosion of lively bars and restaurants and a burgeoning visual arts, theatre, music and street entertainment scene. These urban and cultural pursuits are balanced by relaxed beach life at the Pacific Ocean suburbs of New Brighton and Sumner. On the southern skirts of the city, the Port Hills provide a playground for hikers and mountain bikers, or a great destination for an evening drive.
The city can be used as a base for exploring further afield, with a plethora of city-based companies offering activities such as rafting, paragliding, ballooning and mountain biking, all in the surrounding countryside. Christchurch is also within a two-hour drive of several good ski-fields to the west, making it possible to combine a day on the pistes with an evening in the city's restaurants and bars.
The TranzAlpine
Price: Prices vary according to demand so book well ahead for best prices; $97–118 one way, $140–215 day return
Website: www.tranzscenic.co.nz
When completed in 1923, the train line from Christchurch to Greymouth was a massive boon for travellers, covering in five hours what formerly took two days by horse-drawn coach – a passage tough enough to shorten the average life expectancy of the draught horses to just eighteen months. Today the journey is covered by the TranzAlpine in four-and-a-half hours, leaving Christchurch train station at 8.15am every morning and returning by 6.05pm. It passes through sixteen tunnels and crosses numerous viaducts, all seen from the train's large viewing windows and open-sided observation car. The scenic, 224km coast-to-coast journey starts out across the Canterbury Plains as far as Springfield, after which you start gently up into the mountains. The halfway point is reached around Craigieburn, open tussock country dried throughout the summer by strong nor'wester winds that leave it crisp and golden. As you head up to Arthur's Pass the annual rainfall increases, encouraging transition-zone vegetation of mossy beech forests. There's a pause at Arthur's Pass to add an extra locomotive, after which the train dives through the 8.5km-long Otira Tunnel that burrows under the 920m pass itself. The train then descends to the high-rainfall West Coast, the predominant, lush podocarp forests appearing particularly around Lake Brunner just before you trundle down the Grey Valley into the town of Greymouth.
If you travel in December you will see red and white rata in bloom, but the trip is at its romantic, snow-cloaked best in the winter months (June– Aug). A good strategy for those with a vehicle is to catch the train at Darfield, 45km west of Christchurch, allowing a later start, slightly cheaper fares and fewer parking problems. You only miss Christchurch's suburbs and a few farms.
Wherever you board, consider alighting at Moana for a relaxed three-hour lakeside lunch before boarding for the return journey. It beats a hurried snack in Greymouth and should save you a few dollars.
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