GFE Stumpes: TranzAlpine Railway, NZ (9/27/2025)

Saturday, September 27, 2025

This morning we took a taxi at 7:30 to the Christchurch Railway Station for the TranzAlpine train journey from Christchurch to Greymouth, coast to coast, a distance of 223 km/139 miles, and constructed 1880-1923.

TranzAlpine passenger car (KSS)

TranzAlpine observation car (KSS)

We departed at 8:15 and headed across the Canterbury Plains
toward the snow-covered Southern Alps of New Zealand (KSS)

Crossing the Kowai River, a glacial river
called a braided river in New Zealand (KSS)

Agricultural land, with some walls of hedges (KSS)

We are following an ancient Māori trail along the winding
Waimakariri River gorge, requiring the engineering for
16 tunnels and four high viaducts to be constructed

Staircase Gully Viaduct (1906) is 73 m/240'
above Otarama Stream that empties...

...directly into the Waimakariri River (KSS)

We then start following the Broken River;
looking back on the Broken River Viaduct,
(1906) which is 56 m/183' high

Upland bog marsh

Mountains to the west and Angus cattle (KSS)

Kent went to the observation car,
where no selfie sticks are allowed (KSS)

Mount Binser to the east (KSS)

Sugarloaf Mountain (KSS)

Lake Sarah is well-known for trout fishing (KSS)

The rear of the TranzAlpine train (KSS)

We are once again following the Waimakariri River (KSS)

Hiking bridge to Mount White

Now following the Bealey River, we see really
snow-covered mountains (KSS)

A stop at Arthur's Pass Station, where some passengers
disembarked to hike and be picked up later in the day (KSS)

TranzAlpine Café Car

We were pulled by two locomotives, but here added
two more locomotives to push the train, especially
through the 8.5 km/5.3-mile Ōtira Tunnel (1923) that
has a one in 33 gradient, rising 250 m/820' (KSS)

Kent at Arthur's Pass, with an elevation
of 740 m/2,430'

Belted Galloway cattle

When traveling through the Ōtira Tunnel (1908-1923), we could not move between cars and the observation cars were closed due to fumes. Ventilation fans are used to clear the air in the tunnel. It may have taken about 15 minutes. The tunnel crosses the Great Divide, from the Canterbury region to the West Coast.

Lake Brunner is the largest lake in the west of South Island,
at 42 square km/10,378 acres (KSS)

This was considered to be a rainforest region,
and on this side of the tunnel it was raining (KSS)

A swollen river (KSS)

Coal mining

Lumber mill

We arrived in Greymouth at 13:10, giving us about
an hour before the return trip; we had lunch at
Speight's Ale House (1909, as government offices) (KSS)

Greymouth Railway Station (1895) is an example of a
second-class passenger station; the TranzAlpine journeys began
in 1987 with suspension during the COVID-19 pandemic (KSS)