First up this morning you will board the TranzAlpine train and head out through the majestic Canterbury Plains towards the Southern Alps and on to Arthurs Pass. This spectacular train journey, dating back to 1914, is rated as one of the world’s most scenic train trips. The train forges through tunnels and over viaducts with panoramic views of snow-capped peaks, icy rivers, beech forests, gorges and river valleys.
From Arthurs Pass you continue to the driftwood-strewn beaches of Hokitika. As well as being one of the few West Coast communities to embrace its coastal landscape, Hokitika is rich in resources. Here you visit a pounamu (native greenstone or jade) factory for the chance to see master carvers at work creating intricate pieces of jewellery and art. Maori tradition says it is bad luck to buy pounamu for yourself, so if you fancy a trinket of your own, make sure you have someone there to purchase it for you.
Your final destination today is the extraordinary rivers of ice that make up Franz Josef Glacier. You may want to get up close to the glaciers on a helicopter flight. Your flight will hover over the snow face and may land high up in the valley so that you can walk across the ice fall – subject to weather conditions (optional experience, at own expense).
Tonight, enjoy dinner at your hotel.
Start Time
Oct 27
Christchurch, New Zealand