Day 9 in New Zealand: Across the Southern Alps to Christchurch

In all the New Zealand travel Facebook groups that I joined in preparation for this trip, pretty much everyone else in every group was all, "I'm going to spend three months in New Zealand--where should I go first?" or "I'm going to buy a car in New Zealand, travel in that car for eight months, then sell it before I go home--any free car camping tips?"

And I can see why! There is SO much to do and see that it was agony to narrow down our itinerary to a doable nine days, and then even more agony to stick to that itinerary once we were there. So cool places like Milford Sound and Lake Taupo will have to stay on my must-see-someday list, as will, I am so bummed to say, seeing the Southern Cross with my very own eyes. I'd measured my expectations, because I'd read that it can be pretty rainy in the Spring, but come on! Not even one clear night for stargazing?!?

Next time, I guess!

But we DID get to every other must-see-on-*this*-trip on our lists. The kid wanted to see kiwis, albatrosses (she actually saw plenty of those at sea!), and a rainforest, and she did. I wanted to see glowworms and geothermal stuff, and I wanted to show the kid her first glacier--and I did! My partner wanted to see Hobbiton and Weta Workshop, and the Southern Alps by train--and on this day, he finished off that list!

We had plenty of time that morning for the drive back up the west coast to the train station in Greymouth, so we got to stop whenever something looked pretty, and browse around the little towns we passed through:

I also did the last of our souvenir and Christmas stocking shopping in one last grocery store--the Cadbury and Whittakers did okay in the checked luggage on the way home, but the smaller chocolates and the Jaffa Cakes got mauled nearly to crumbs, dang it. 

In the early afternoon we returned our rental car in Greymouth, and boarded the TranzAlpine train to cross the Southern Alps. It was so pretty!

We spent a LOT of time out in the open-air observation car, where the best views--and the best photos!--lived--

--but it was a five-hour trip, so we also had a lot of time to just hang out together, which was really, really nice, too:

Like, even though we'd been practically living in each other's pockets for the past nine days, almost all of that time had been either sitting facing the same direction in the car, or doing some kind of activity that required most of our attention and all of our breath. We're not really restaurant people, so we'd actually spent very little time facing each over a table and chatting. It was nice to have all the downtime in the world to chat, trade crossword puzzles (the New York Times Wednesday puzzles are our sweet spot) back and forth, and set out all our snacks for a proper feast:

We didn't see much more of Christchurch than the view out of various taxi driver's windows, so add that to my to-do list for next time, too! I also didn't see much more of my kid, as she was booked on a separate--and MUCH more convenient!--ticket. Even though her first flight left Christchurch just an hour before ours, she ended up getting back to Indianapolis TEN HOURS before us! She was nearly to Auckland by the time we boarded our own flight there--

--already in the international terminal and getting ready to board her flight across the Pacific by the time we arrived, and by the time we had settled in to our long layover in Houston, she was picking up our car from the economy parking lot at the Indy airport and heading home for a nap and a shower!

Also, Air New Zealand food isn't the worst, but it's not great, either. The roll and the two glasses of wine were the only real winners here:

When we FINALLY got back, and the kid rolled up to the curb at Arrivals to pick us up, my partner was so hungry that he basically had her take us straight to Wendy's, which was kind of gross and hilarious. We'd joked the whole time in New Zealand that we were on a "corn fast," on account of none of the foods we'd consumed--not even the sodas!--had high fructose corn syrup, so I guess ending the corn fast also meant that our vacation was really over, too!

Here's our whole trip:

Day 1: Auckland

Day 2: Hobbiton

Day 3: Rotorua

Day 4: Glowworms and Kiwis

Day 5: South to Wellington

Day 6: Wellington

Day 7: South Island

Day 8: Franz Josef Glacier

Day 9: TranzAlpine Train to Christchurch

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, encounters with Chainsaw Helicopters, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!