From: "Philip Merryman" <phil_merryman@hotmail.com>

Date: Wed Mar 20, 2002 05:59:12 AM Etc/GMT

Subject: Arrived in New Zealand

Strewth its Cold!!

Well, compared to the Tropics in Cairns it is! In fact on Monday the temperature in Christchurch was oficcially 16C (Compared to 35C in Cairns!) but with a biting strong wind direct from Antartica it was definitely much less! However on Tuesday the wind changed to North West, in other words direct from Cairns! So it has been a bit warmer the last two days.

The flights Cairns-Sydney-Christchurch were routine and landed at about 22:20. I had managed to send more stuff back in the post from Oz so I was able to get my boots in the rucksack and wear my comfy shoes and still keep the weight down to 20kg. However I had forgotton about the bio security in this party of the world and had to dig them out again at customs for checking! Oz and NZ are really worried about plants and other living material getting into their ecosystems. After all many have before and made a right mess of the place!

Monday in Ch'ch was mainly a wander around the town to see where everything is. One of the first things I saw just after lunchtime was two coppers leading away a bloke with his hands tied behind his back! It looked like he had had a beer or two too many, which is not bad going for a Monday lunchtime. However considering the day before had been Paddy's day he was probably a leftover from the night before!

Ch'ch is often described as the most English city outside England! With this weather it certainly was! The street layout is a grid, which is not English but many of the streets are named after English places: Gloucester, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, Worecester and so on. Even the trees are English with weeping willows and horse chestnuts! My B&B is called the Croydon House, but is run by a German!

On Tuesday I had two main places I wanted to visit. There is a double decker bus which goes around the main places of interest around Ch'ch. The two I wanted to see were opposite sides of the town so this bus was useful. My first port of call was the gondola. This is cable car up to the top of the hills to the South of the town. These hills are the remains of volcanoes from millions of years ago and from the top you get a magnificent view over the city on the plain to the Southern Alps beyond. The other way looks straight down into what was originally the crater to the main port. Further over is the other volcano but you cannot see into it from the first one. However the wind was blowing a real hooly so it was a bit difficult to hold the camera still! It would be a great place for walks from the top of the cable car, but in that wind, and with only my soft shoes on, it will have to wait another day.

The bus came back after an hour and a half. I had about 15 minutes to get down in the cable car from the top. However because it was so windy it had been slowed down. I had visions of watching the bus come and go while I was half way down! In fact the cabin in front of me was just entering the bottom station as the bus pulled up! This was going to be annoying if he just went as I got down! I was still a couple of hundred metres away! Fortunately the bus had stopped in a place where I could see the driver, so much frantic waving ensued!! Fortunately he saw me and waited! As I got on he said that the wave had done the trick! Phew! Because he wasn't coming back again for another two hours!

After a stop off in town to do some shopping (for rugby shirts!) and have lunch, I caugh the bus again. However once more I cut it a bit fine as it was lunchtime and the cafe I was at had several people from the local offices in for lunch and was therefore reasonably busy. Consequently, like the cable car, thinks were a bit slower than I anticipated, but this time I made the bus by a minute!

In a small park area opposite the cafe is a statue of Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antartic). This Ch'ch is the main gateway to the Antatric and both Scott and Shackleton had set out from there. Consequently when Scott died on Antartica the City felt it personally and so they erected the statue, caved by Scotts wife, as atribute. However she too died just before it was finished! So by his left foot is part of the marble which was never carved away.

Antartica was the point of my afternoon trip because at the airport id the Antartic Centre. The USA, NZ and Italy have the base for their Antatric Explorations at Ch'ch airport as it is where they fly from to get there. This is a major setup and they have an excellent vistor information centre there. As well as many displays about the life, ecosystems, geology, etc of the continent they also have various experiences to enjoy. One being a cold room at -5C witjh snow ice, an igloo and a fan to stand in front of to get the wind chill down to about -18C. There are various films to see as well. However the best bit takes place outside. They have a Hagglund, which is the vehicle used on Antartica. This is a two cabin, four tracked vehicle. Basically a main one ad a trailer, but all tracks are driven (made in Sweden, powered by Mercedes Benz!). You get taken in a ride in this thing over a series of humps and bumps up and down at 45 degrees, over an imitation crevasse. You really get thrown around! having ridden in it, then watched it a couple of times to get pictures, the lady driving it began to recognise me! As I was waiting for the bus at the end of the day she arrived in he Hagglund again after another run, and said "Are you still here!". My reply was "You enjoy doing that don't you?". She had to admit it wasn't bad as jobs go! Though she had previously spent a couple of years on Antartica but not driven one until she came to the centre!

Today has been my trip on the Tranzalpine train from Ch'ch to Greymouth on the West coast (where I am now). Yesterday in Ch'ch had been clear and bright but windy. This morning it was dull and overcats, but quite warm. The clouds were down on the hills as the train left Ch'ch. It progressed through flat very English countryside, with many sheep! Howeverthis was deceptive as we climbed 1200 feet without knowing! The train has a samll open section so you can stand outside and get pictures without the windows being in the way. But I think we had ther small one today because it was a bit of a crowd! Having got a place to see if you moved you lost it! However you usually managed to get back again soon. Fortunately so, as I twice had to return to my carraige: once because I forgot to bring the spare video batteries with me and then the batteries in the stills camera ran out, so I had to go back and put new ones in!

Once the train entered the mountains the weather remarkably inmproved, and the sky was aclear blue with some clouds here and there. The views of the mountains and riverers are staggering! There was still snow on the highest of the peaks. Train passes over many bridges and tunnels at it heads for Arthur's Pass, the highest point of the line. The hills were covered in scree slopes in places, trees in others. The rivers were wide and open in places and in deep gorges in others. There really was a lot to try and take in!

The Southern Alps divide the weather quite dramatically between the two sides of the South Island. Overnight the West side had had a tremendous amount of rain and this has resulted in part of the line on the other side of the pass being washed away! So after crossing the pass, and emerging from the 8km tunnel, we had to get onto busses to complete the journey! The road follows the railway a lot of the way, but goes a completely different route in other parts. However the views were still incredible. This side is much wetter (5-7 metres of rain per year!) and so was dense rainforest over almost all of the mountains up to the "tree line" (where it is too high for them to grow). So disappointing not to do the whole trip on the train, but we still got to see a lot. This has been the first real problem I have encountered in the whole of my travels so far.

However I get the feeling that the view here are just the warm up act! As in the next week hopefully I will get to see the glaciers and the fjords!

Greymouth is the biggest town on the West coast of the South Island and is mainly a port and industrial town. So it is just a sleepover here before catching the "Magic Bus" in the morning.

See you soon!

Phil