From Wellington to Christchurch

Wednesday we were up early again for our ferry/train combo day. We boarded the ferry in Wellington and said goodbye to the houses built into a hill.

Our ferry

Decked out

We rode across the Cook Straight and through Marlborough Bay into Picton, our point of arrival on the South Island.

Marlborough Bay

We had time for lunch in downtown Picton (seafood fritters) before boarding our scenic train to Christchurch.

Our train route: Picton - Christchurch

This train was the same type as our last one. We saw many of the same things on our trip as well: tunnels, bridges, rivers...

And sheep…. lots and lots of sheep.

The main difference on this trip is we were mostly at sea level and about half of our ride was along the coast so we had beautiful views of the ocean, the beaches, and the coastline. We were able to see a few seals, but no whales or dolphins.

You'll have to look very closely for the seals

They blend in

The lady on the headset told us that it was 9000 kilometers to Chile, one of the longest uninterrupted stretches of open water.

Coming out of Picton we could see that the logging industry is significant as indicated by some of the clear cutting. And wine vineyards are a booming business.

 We passed by the evaporation ponds and the factory that processed the salt.

We also saw loads of scotch broom. It was actually really beautiful in full bloom on the hillsides, but I wondered if it’s the kind of nuisance it is on the Sacramento River. We could see how the broom appeared to fill in where the trees were not growing, and were wondering if it significantly prevented regrowth.

We pulled into Christchurch at the end of a 6-hour train ride and had a delicious Moroccan dinner. We get up early again on Thursday morning for our last day of rail. We take the Tranz Alpine across to Greymouth where we'll pick up a car for the rest of our trip.