Warning: no photos from today.
When we left Franz this morning at 8.30 it was 2 degrees, by far the coldest morning we've had.
We only had a two hour drive to Greymouth, so after a quick leg stretch in Ross (a very small and boring town on the way), we arrived at Greymouth. It was about 11am and we had plenty of time to kill before our train trip. We sussed out where everything was - answer is that the car rental drop-off and the railway station were the exact same building!
It was very windy (and cold due to wind chill) in Greymouth. We are very lucky we haven't had that kind of weather throughout our holiday. The conditions have definitely made all our activities more enjoyable.
We went to McDonalds so Guy could get a good coffee and we could kill some of that time we had on our hands. BTW the chocco frappe I had was awesome!!
After about a 45 minute stint at Maccas we filled the car up with petrol and dropped it back. We did 1800 km in the car which means we did exactly half our travel by motorhome and the other half by car. At the same time we checked in for the train and checked our baggage.
We crossed the road to the Speights Ale House for lunch. We couldn't resist - great food and closest eatery... The food was again delicious and it wasn't busy so we hung around till 1.15.
We boarded the train - a first for us both on this trip - and it was quite nice and roomy. The chairs were comfortable enough with a decent amount of legroom. The overhead storage was a bit crappy, but we didn't have too much that needed to go up.
As we sat down and made ourselves comfortable, we looked to our left and saw 2 of the couples we did the helihike. One of which we knew about, but there was another of them and the 6 of us were the last in the carriage - what a coincidence! Our journey was to be about 4 1/2 hours across to Christchurch. We ended up arriving about 15 minutes early.
On the trip, Guy researched how to use Light Room, computer components and then played solitaire. I had a little snooze before reading a magazine. We did both try to enjoy some of the countryside, but considering we've driven for most of the past 3 weeks it kind of all looked the same. Would definitely be impressive when there's snow on the mountains.
When we arrived in Christchurch we collected our luggage and met someone from the the Addington City Motel who came to collect us. We had our own little person with a 'Blucher' sign - I have always wanted that. The gentleman took us just around the corner to our accommodation, and offered to take us to the airport tomorrow for a much cheaper price than a taxi and showed us where some eateries are. The room is quite outdated but very big and quite sufficient for our needs.
We walked down the road just a little and got a Domino's pizza (bacon rashers and meatballs) and some drinks from a local shop - Guy's final locally brewed beer.
Now that we are 'on our way' home, we both just want to skip the 5 1/2 hours of travel tomorrow and beam ourselves back. Will be good to be home even though we've had such a great time over the past three weeks.
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