January 5, 2014 S. Island V: Across the Southern Alps

The final leg of the tour stretched north along the western coast to Greymouth. On the way, we stopped for lunch in Hokitika, a small town that grew in the 1860s gold rush era and has recently gained notoriety as the setting of The Luminaries (the latest Man Booker prize award winner, which was a big deal in NZ since the author is a Kiwi). Other than a clock tower, it didn’t have too much going for it.

In Greymouth we boarded a KiwiRail Tranzalpine train that would take us all the way to Christchurch. The train seemed to crawl for most of the journey, but that was ideal since the ride was more comfortable than the bus we’d ridden in for over a week and since the scenery really was worth it. However, as the end of the tour, it was a trip tinged with sadness, both at leaving our now close-knit bunch and at having to start work in a couple of days.

Once in Christchurch, most of the group I’d stuck with had a last supper together, and then another girl and I took a brief stroll through part of the city. We passed parks and some lovely old buildings, but we also saw sections that seemed to be the same as they were after the earthquake almost three years ago. The following morning I didn’t have time to visit any more areas in the city before my flight back to Auckland, which means I’ll just have to make another trip to Christchurch to find the parts of the city that have recovered.

I struggle to sum up the tremendous journey I took. In less than ten days, I travelled almost two thousand kilometers around the South Island and visited a dozen towns. I saw stunning places and felt alive. I felt grateful to be alive and felt cursed to be under so much rain. I made friends and at times made a fool of myself. I experienced many new things and went to whereabouts that I’ll probably never go again, and I did my best to let go of worry and live for the time and place wherever I found myself. To record everything I encountered would take far too long (and would never quite capture my experience anyway), so I’ll close by saying that this trip was one of the most enriching and enjoyable times of my life. There—now go travel someplace you’ve dreamt of going!