TranzAlpine Train Tour

About Tour

Enjoy a 9-hour scenic TranzAlpine train tour through Arthur’s Pass National Park – a highlight of your South Island itinerary. I will be your personal guide and will pick you up from your accommodation in Christchurch and drive you across the Canterbury Plains to meet the TranzAlpine train in the foothills of the Southern Alps.

From here you will get on the TranzAlpine train, which will take you alongside the Waimakariri River. It takes you up through the scenic Arthur’s Pass National Park. Expect to see the amazing and unique New Zealand alpine scenery with snow-capped mountains year-round, as you climb into the Southern Alps.

Arthur’s Pass station is a unique place. If you ride the train to the West Coast and back, you only get a couple of minutes to view the scenery from the platform. You do so along with several hundred other people and then you are in a tunnel for the next 10 minutes, missing out on absolutely some of the best scenery along this route. They add on 3 engines here to lower the train down through the steep Otira tunnel, so everyone boards the train and sits down as they connect the other 3 trains. Viewing the train as it leaves the station and sweeps round the bend to enter the tunnel makes for a great photo opportunity.

I will then drive you to the lookout over the stunning Otira Gorge, where the native parrot – the Kea, often resides and are eager to entertain us. We can enjoy short walks in the Native Mountain Beech forest and many glorious photo opportunities to view Alpine plants, waterfalls and the birdlife.

Finally, we call into the Arthur’s Pass National Park Visitors centre to view many of their informative interpretations. From here, we will find a scenic location overlooking the national park and enjoy a 2-course homemade picnic lunch from my organic garden.

After lunch we will drive back towards Christchurch. Our journey takes us passing through scenery that gives a different perspective compared to your TranzAlpine train journey – the alpine scenery, high country sheep stations, lakes, limestone formations and river valleys. Again, there are opportunities to enjoy short walks on the Bealey Track or Cave Stream on the way home.

Note: You can hop onto the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch rather than Springfield, at no additional cost, and I will meet you at the Arthur’s Pass station to begin our tour. Personally, I recommend that you cross the Canterbury Plains with me as definitely the most scenic part of the journey is from Springfield. It also gives us more time to explain the scenery and more importantly we can stop for photos along the way if you wish.