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TranzAlpine Express New Zealand by Roy Sinclair travel map Soft Cover stapled
TranzAlpine Express New Zealand by Roy Sinclair
The TranzAlpine Express
Roy Sinclair
Inside Back Cover Contains the Travel Map
Soft Cover stapled
34 Pages
Copyright 1995 first published
1997 Revised
The TranzAlpine, or simply the 'Tranz', is New Zealand's well-known coast-to-coast tourist train that each morning departs Christchurch on a 231-kilometre journey to Greymouth. Its narrow-gauge (1067-millimetre) single track crosses the cultivated Canterbury Plains, twists and turns above deep river gorges, crosses high spindly viaducts, passes through 19 tunnels (one 8.5 kilometres long) and continues on beside rain forests, past lakes said to be teeming with trout, and through more tunnels, until it reaches its destination a short distance from the waves crashing off the Tasman Sea.
Stately Christchurch (population 350,000), on the South Island's east (Pacific) coast is arguably the most 'English' of cities outside England. Greymouth (population about 8000) is a town built around a one-time busy port on the Grey River. Still bearing the hallmarks of a boom or bust town, Greymouth is precariously bounded by mountains, the river and the Tasman Sea.
The TranzAlpine, with some justification, claims to be one of the world's great rail journeys. With an onboard licensed buffet and often quirky commentaries provided by train managers, the Tranz carries more tourist travellers than local people. The one train makes a return journey to Greymouth (each way is less than five hours) making it ideally suited for a day excursion from Christchurch. The Tranz can also be used as the start ofa journey into Westland - the West Coast - with its Shantytown museum, coal and gold mines, jade rivers and magnificent national parks boasting scenery endowed with World Heritage status.
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