Train #6 - Coastal Pacific

We must board the bus at 0600! Hard to believe on the 11th day of this 13-day odyssey, the make us get up for such an early departure.

Our tour calls today's train the 'fifth' train, the last of New Zealand's "Big Five". Our count calls it our sixth unique train. The Coastal Pacific runs from Christchurch to Picton, the ferry terminal to the north island of New Zealand.

Most of the run to Kaikoura is through non-descript farmland. Eventually the train arrives at a run along the east coast of the South Island.

We exit the train at Kaikoura. Our scheduled whale watch boat trip gets cancelled. The aircraft spotters have been unable to find whales.

With time on our hands, Ross and Jane conjure up a short bus ride along the peninsula to show us the coast up close. Nearby mountains have fresh early season snow.

We pass four alpacas being walked.

We spend an uneventful three hours in the one-street town most stretching out lunch at a fish & chips place.

Before dinner our guides hand out 8 "awards". There was a discussion on the bus as to who had the heaviest suitcase. CJ said no one stood a chance considering the amount of alcohol we were carrying. Since we had three days with only one night in each of three hotels, we redistributed our "his and hers" suitcases into what do we need the next three days and one suitcase with everything else. That suitcase happened to have Carol's tags. She wins the 'award' for heaviest suitcase.

Our great guides from left to right, Mike, Jane, Dale, and Trevor. Jane and Dale are married. Trevor is headed to Boulder to visit his daughter and we've given him an amazing Spanish restaurant recommendation that his daughter did not know. Trevor was also CJ's wingman on the climb since, as the person making the slowest and most deliberate ascent, everyone was reasonably certain he wouldn't make and worse might suffer an incident.

CJ gets an award for his "heroic" climb to the Tasman Lake viewing platform. Since our bus mates were assembled at the base waiting to give him an ovation when he finally arrived back down, this one was expected.