Tranzalpine

Once again Dan and I have been travelling in New Zealand - winter is after all the ideal season to see it ; ) This time we spent five days in 'sunny' Canterbury, mostly based in Christchurch. These photos come from a day train-trip that we took called the Tranzalpine - a spectacular trip up and over the Southern Alps to the Wild West town of Greymouth. Highlights along the way included the sight of a freshly painted salmon-pink shed at Cass station in honour of the iconic Rita Angus painting; several old corrugated iron houses in various states of abandon in the middle of nowhere; a positively Antarctic stop in the small alpine town of Arthur's Pass; the gorges and braided rivers of the Canterbury high country; and the native bush and lakes on the west side of the mountains coming into Greymouth. We also had the highly unexpected pleasure of bumping into Catherine's parents, who taken the trip with some friends, in Greymouth. Greymouth itself was pretty small, but they'd clearly made a collective decision to deck out the town in brightly coloured paint which was cheery of them. I also spotted this bizarre angel in a shop-window on the main drag. Is it my imagination or is it meant to be Princess Di? They obviously don't get out much in Greymouth....