land of the lost

Land of the lost:  this past weekend we took an amazing train journey to the west coast of New Zealand.   Researching what our first big adventure would be gave me some purpose to my days as the weekend grew nearer.  The country is big and diverse and has so much to offer it was hard to know where to begin to explore, and I kept coming back to “one of the world’s most beautiful train trips” on the Tranzalpine  from Christchurch to Greymouth on the west coast.  Like I mentioned earlier, we were all a bit out of sorts and felt like we deserved a little vaca (from our vacation life!) –sorry that sounds so funny now-here we are in New Zealand and we are feeling like we are in need of a respite!!   Everyone was packed up and ready early Saturday morning for the trip; except for the fact that I thought Paul knew where the train station was and vice versa (I knew the general direction of it…)  but crisis averted we made it to the train station and there was our train waiting for us.  It really brought back such great travel memories from all my jaunting around Europe on the rails with my backpack and my well worn copy of Let’s go!   Over 20 years later and a few extra mates along  we are good to go.  We wished there was a platform 9 ¾ as it felt as if we were boarding for Hogwarts.  One of the questions that came up as harry potter trivia was “how long do you think it took for the train to reach Hogwarts?”-and also “does everyone who goes to Hogwarts have to ride the Hogwarts express-what about those not from London?”  I digress…

 We found our compartment and seats with big wide windows and a shared table between us, plus a menu from the dining car, offering all sorts of yummy sounding treats from hot chocolate and ANZAC biscuits to Canterbury beef and cheddar pies…we did try all these mentioned plus Mia discovered a new favorite soda-L&P-lemony and tangy.  As soon as the train set off we were mesmorized- where we live here is called the Canterbury plains and it is a very wide flat plain known mainly for its agriculture but heading west the mountains that become the Southern Alps rise up without warning.  It is summer so we saw just a bit of snow caps, and the winding Waimakariri River was low but a crazy teal blue.  Alex took lots of film footage on the flip and Mia grabbed the camera before long to shoot some shots out the train.  Every once in awhile one of the female crew would mention and describe a point of interest but really we could not understand her!  The only bit I got was when we crossed the alps to the west through a long tunnel she mentioned how different the foliage was on the western side of the mountains and how “wet” it was- but this came out to us as “wait”, which I got into conversation anytime after that to the chagrine of the kids!*   There is an open car also but it was so crowded we had better vantage from our seats.   The beautiful scenery and lulling of the train travel made a quick trip of it and we were in Greymouth-a mining town on the west coast.  We got a car and to our hotel which ended up being a bit out of town, and also did not have the advertised pool we looked forward to, but the woman running it was so amazingly sweet and accommodating we did not think twice about going anywhere else.  We really wanted to do some hiking/tramping while here and she sent us down the road to a hike to coal river falls, also nearby a public pool!   The hike started just off a culdesac of houses but as soon as we stepped on the trail it was like we were transported to another world- it was green, lush and loud!  Birds that sounded like phone ringtones and buzzing and clicking from the treetops filled out the space!  (later learned these were Tui birds and cicadas respectively)  More filming and photos and general marveling at out surroundings until we heard the roar of the falls-what a reward-and all sat on these huge boulder perches on top of a chilly stream.  Kogen went rock hopping downstream and we all found our spots to rest and cool our feet.  (it was a “wait* wait” as said in my best NZ accent)  The little hamlet we were staying in could not be more than 2 streets long, and the major sign we saw was for a landfill, but it was so crazy beautiful surrounded by knife point ridged mountains and had this amazing pool center in the middle of it!  Very happy family that night-all our travel needs met (well, Mia was still missing REAL TV, but…we did see night 2 of Idol!).

The next day we planned on venturing north along the coast to a site called pancake rocks, also known as Punakaiki surrounded by a national park.  The drive was both knuckle-whitening and goose bump raising with curving, cliff hugging, hairpin turns and breathtaking views of rocky crags sticking up out of the Tasman Sea.   There is a perfect pancake café across from the rocks where we fueled up on…pancakes and other yummy café food, then made our way to see the rocks.  Kogen was disappointed they were not for climbing but they were interesting!  The cause of the formations is still unknown but it is a dolomite limestone rock that has gotten compressed in to these stacks that do look like—pancakes.  Every wave changes these rocks, and there are blowholes and caves and bridges etched out by the pounding surf over time.  We then headed to a hiking path shown to us that followed the Pororari River and ended at a swing bridge.  All the while we are trying to put this area into some kind of context-“it’s just like…” but we can’t.  Along the hike through dense rainforest and a swift river, Paul finally comes up with “land of the lost”.  Of course this leads to discussions of sleestacks and rafting trips gone wrong but mostly trying to focus on how the vines and moss growing on every tree and rock make it seem as if you stood still for five minutes, you would be covered too!   We finally saw our first wild animal (we are NOT counting sheep!) with a little waddling bird coming up the path towards us pecking away at the ground-“oh my gosh it is a KIWI bird?” we wonder but had read they are both rare and nocturnal so thought not.   Along the trail were some crazy plant formations and in one cave of a tree trunk someone had placed a large plastic frog with huge eyes gazing out at us-I think Alex is the only one who didn’t scream!   Beautiful stone stairs and careful wooden bridges got us to our destination- the swing bridge-crossing the river and looking down on a bed of round stones that some had set in cairns and we taught the kids to skip with.   The bird we had seen turned out to be a Weka or wood hen, which is a protected bird now but the Maori used to eat and it is said it tastes like chicken!

By the end of our weekend, we were rejuvenated and loving this side of New Zealand-there is so much we did not even see but felt good about our priorities. "This is the new zealand in the coffee table books!" Mia asked if we can come back sometime, and we actually talked of looking forward to going “home”.  We are trying to come up with a name for the house here-“kiwi kastle” was one, but it really is NOT a castle!  I am feeling that as comfortable we are feeling and looking forward to returning to, it still is not HOME.