The West Coast

4-6.4.2015

"New Zealand, how can you be so beautiful?!"

The Tasman sea, in the West Coast. 

I amaze with the scenery in New Zealand, the South Island. It never brings me disappointment yet gives me the feeling of 'Wou! Wou! and Wou!', it was beyond my expectation!

There was a long holiday in the April for the Kiwi, Good Friday and come with Easter Day after then. This time, i spent my holiday in the West Coast with my ex-uni mate. We finally got the chance to have our 'honeymoon' trip in New Zealand after a long meet up.

>>> FIRST DAY (4/4) <<<

Yeah, our trip started! We were at the Christchurch Railway Station, going to board the train to Greymouth.

A little signature tower at the railway station. 

We took TranZalpine Kiwirail Scenic Journeys, from Christchurch to Greymouth. It was my idea to take the train to the west, a must-do-task in my New Zealand trip. We spent NZD149 for it, the train facilities is real good, comfort seat, spacious with a large window for the passengers to enjoy the wonderful view outside. Unfortunately, the weather on that day was bad, heavy rain in the middle of the trip. Beautiful scenery was covered with mist and end up we slept on the train. How silly was that! (The total journey took around 4.5 hours.)

Boarding.

Huge window. The journey was began with a beautiful rainbow.

You can spot it was actually a double rainbow if you see carefully.

The scenic view.

How i wish it was a good weather, i bet the scenery will sure be very beautiful.

Arthurs Pass. One of the stop.

We spent the money for nap on the train! :x (the train was passing through a tunnel).

We reached Greymouth station! 

 

Greymouth is the biggest town in the West Coast. It shows much of its industrial roots and would not be considered an especially attractive tourist town. 

Greymouth has a history of coal and gold mining.

A random picture. Our face expressions were superb!

We paid for our stay in a backpacker hostel, Global Village. It was ranked as the top backpacker in Greymouth.

Ranking: 5/5

Experience: It was the best backpacker i ever stay in New Zealand. Global Village is beautifully decorated in a Global Art theme, provides amazing services and facilities like gym, sauna, and hot spa that seldom see in other backpacker hostel. Besides, the backpacker hostel also provides free bicycle and kayak. The place was nicely tidy up, warm and comfortable, a relaxing place for me.

The lounge:

You can see the lounge was well decorated, with comfortable sofas. 

The facilities: Computer, book & magazine, music instruments (piano, guitar), board game, separated TV lounge with great collection of world movies.

The rooms: 

The corridor to the rooms. 

We stayed in room 11.

The facilities:

Hot spa.

Suana & fitness room.

Awesome sauna experience. We sweat a lot! 

>>> SECOND DAY (5/4) <<<

Yeah.. We rented a car for a day to Punakaiki today. 

Company: Alpine West Car Rental

Experince: relatively cheap and good service. They will send you the car right to the place you want to.

We stopped by the coast line while we were driving on the way to Punakaiki. The huge sea and the blue sky attracted me. 

Our itinerary of the day: 

(Paparoa National Park)

Pancake rock >> Truman track >> Pororari river track

The entrance to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. It is the main attration in Punakaiki.

The pictures we took all along the way visited the pancake rocks.

After that, we moved to the next station - Truman track. It was a short track that only take around 15mins to reach the end point. 

A short walk to a beach.

The short track was not enough challenging for us, therefor we decided to go for the other track that took around 2-3hours time in go and return.

The Pororari River track:

There was a swingbridge at the end of the track.

Punakaiki Beach Hostel - a little cute and cosy backpacker house just next to a beach.

I love this weather forecast the most! It was so creative!

Walked to the beach in the early morning.

>>> THIRD DAY (6/4) <<<

Mission: explore the cavern.

We did not go deep inside the cave, not really explore it but this was a nice experience for us.

There we ended our West Coast trip. 3 days 2 night, short yet fulfilment. Then, we took a shuttle bus back to Christchurch.

Castle hill.

***** The Food Of The Place *****

1. DP 1 Cafe (Greymouth)

The cafe offers breakfast and lunch. It is the popular cafe in Greymouth, nice food nice coffee. Reasonable price.

Ranking: 4/5

2. Freddy Cafe (Greymouth)

I ordered BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato). The portion was good and the chips was nice. 

Raking: 3/5

3. Ali's Eating and Drinking (Greymouth)

They provide good food and the atmosphere was nice. 

Raking: 4/5

4. Pancake Rocks Cafe

Having pancake while visit the pancake rocks is a must? We spent NZD17.50 for the pancake set. It was truely expensive! Luckily the pancake was great with its pure cherries jam. Nice yet pricy. 

Rating: 3/5