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Thurs 20 Nov 2014
Before breakfast we went for a walk and located the Catholic and anglican churches. Both lovely. The latter has the alps as the backdrop and visible through the altar window - St James Anglican Church, Franz Josef.
Then it was back on the bus for our journey north to Greymouth - but first a stop at the Jade Factory at Hokitika. The craftsman explained how they select, cut, carve & polish the stone. Then there was the opportunity to view the products available in the store. This was also a later morning tea/ lunch break.
Onwards we push through the area originally settled as a result of finding gold in the area. The largest nugget found in the area was discovered at Ross in 1909 and named Roddy after the then Minister for Mines, Rodderick McKenzie.
We arrived into Greymouth and changed mode of transport for the final leg of the journey to Christchurch. Greymouth was the site of the 2011 Ming disaster and the day prior to our arrival was the anniversary of the event. Memorials everywhere and extra sad as a decision has recently been made not to recover the bodies of the miners.
We joined the TransAlpine Train and set off through valleys of native forest and past Lake Brunner to Otira and through the 8 mile long tunnel through the alps to Arthur's Pass. All throughout this part of the trip we were flanked by snow-capped peaks of the Southern Alps. Another 13 much smaller tunnels and we began our decent to the Canterbury Plains for the run into Christchurch. The alps area is mainly sheep however once down on Canterbury Plain the agriculture changes to mixed sheep, dairy & red deer. While we did the train ride the bus drove on ahead to Christchurch to meet at the station.
The entire train ride was picturesque (huge mountaians, deep gorges, misty waterfalls & of course sheep) and relaxing - a change form the bus.
We arrived into Christchurch where the bus was waiting to transport us to the motel. Dinner and pack our bags ready for our trip back to Brisbane tomorrow afterrnoon.
Today's temperature: Min 10 (Franz Josef) Max 17 (Christchurch)
Today's insights:
Roddy (New Zealand's largest gold nugget) was bought for £400 (equivalent to $65,000 in 2014) by a Ross storekeeper and his Canterbury associate. A cast of it was soon on show in the Canterbury Museum. In 1911 the ‘Honourable Roddy’ was bought by the government. Mounted in a ‘fitting setting’, it became New Zealand’s ‘decidedly handsome’ Coronation gift to King George V. When enquiries were made 40 years later, it was discovered that the nugget had been melted down to make a royal tea service.
The Nikau Palm is New Zealands only native Palm and grows in the more tropical environment to the east of the Alpine Ranges.
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