In order to connect to the second of our slow travel train rides, we booked the ferry to Picton on the South Island, billed as one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world.
A three and a half hour journey, it leaves Wellington harbor and traverses the Cook Strait, one of the wildest passages in the world, before coming into the calmer waters of the fjord-like Tory Strait and scenic Marlborough Sound.
We saw none of it.
The waters of the Cook Strait were so rough that they closed the outdoor viewing decks for about an hour, though it probably didn’t matter, because the wind was so fierce it was virtually impossible to push the doors to the outside deck open, and if you did manage it, it would had been too miserable to stay out there for more than a few seconds.
The highlight of the trip was a rainbow that appeared over Wellington and reappeared over the ferry as we crossed the strait.
We were quite disappointed that our beautiful ferry ride had been a bust, and were pessimistic about the next leg of our journey- the scenic Coastal Pacific train from Picton to Christchurch, which was to take about 6 hours.
We had our raincoats on when we left the ferry and had a couple of hours in Picton before the train departed, during which time it began to clear up, so we went down to the harbor and watched tiny sailboats race around the bay. By the time we boarded the train, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky-weather that lasted the entire length of the journey.
As our first train ride wasn’t quite what we had anticipated, and this one was run by the same company, we had set our expectations for this trip accordingly. But although the carriages, menu, audio commentary, viewing car and seats were identical, this train ride was magical where the first had been mundane, and spectacular where the first had been so-so.
First of all, this train was barely half-full, so Tom and I, although seated at a table for four, never had any seat companions the whole way, allowing us to really stretch out and spread our stuff around. The audio guides worked perfectly, the staff seemed much pleasanter, and although it was still hard to understand the conductor, it was because of his Southa Asian accent, not because he spoke too fast or monotonously.
All of these factors made it a much more enjoyable journey, but the real treat was the scenery. From end to end it was a delight, and often jaw-droppingly beautiful.
We wished this had been the 13 hour train journey and the previous one the shorter ride. And despite the fact that we could have happily ridden this train for much longer, it arrived punctually on time in Christchurch and the baggage was unloaded efficiently onto an actual moving conveyor belt!
Outside of Picton, we passed through the Marlborough region, world famous for its Sauvignon Blanc wines. It looked so much like Northern California’s Wine Country of the Sonoma and Napa Valleys.
After that the scenery only got more and more scenic. As we neared the east coastline, we passed through a salt making lake (named Grasmere, but unlike its beautiful namesake in England’s Lake District).
Then, a couple of hours in, we hit the coast—and I mean almost literally hit it, with the train running alongside the seashore for mile after breath taking mile. Much of the time it was like looking at a moving Mark Rothko painting.
The colors of New Zealand’s waters are otherworldly (more on that in a later post), and it was impossible to tear my eyes away from the spectacle outside the over-sized windows.
The open air viewing car was really special—it was never crowded, and the warm air passing through smelled of the sea, and you could even hear the roar of the waves over the roar of the diesel engine.
Along the way we spotted seals and sea lions basking on rocks and saw miles of unspoilt beaches that were completely empty. It was, I think, the prettiest and most entrancing train ride I have ever been on.
The day had begun with a huge disappointment when the weather did not allow us to enjoy the scenic Picton ferry ride, but ended with the enormous satisfaction of having had the perfect weather for the even more scenic Coastal Pacific train. Similarly, while the first train journey had been a bit if a let-down, the second amply made up for its deficiencies.
Normally, achieving only half your goals is a best a toss-up. In school, 50% is an ‘F’. But if you look at things in baseball terms, the picture is a lot brighter. If a baseball player got a hit in half his at-bats, he would be batting 500, an epic, virtually impossible feat. No one has ever done it over a whole season and if they had, they would be considered the greatest hitter of all time.
So, I choose to look at our day of travel from Wellington to Christchurch, (and our two long train rides in NZ) through the lens of baseball- we struck out on one of two journeys from Wellington to Christchurch, and one of our two train rides was a bit of a whiff, but on the Costal Pacific we hit a homerun–we truly batted 500 with that spectacular trip.
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