[LCA2019 Chat] Stopping somewhere during the Tranzalpine Journey?

[Ewen McNeill]

On 2019-01-14 14:56, Marc MERLIN wrote:
> Kind of a hard question, but are those walks complementary with those
> I'll already have done, namely:
> - milford track
> - routeburn
> - kepler
> or it'll be a bit more redundant and I should just let my wife enjoy
> some bubbly drink in the train all the way to greymouth and back?

The Milford Track, and the Routeburn are some of the top hiking tracks 
in New Zealand (and the Kepler is well up there too).  The Arthur's Pass 
area doesn't really come up in "top hiking tracks", except perhaps for 
snow/ice mountaineering, which isn't really something that's practical 
in a 4-5 hour stopover.

If you enjoy walking with *views* of snow/ice covered mountain ranges, 
it could be worth the stop, if you figure out how to get to the start of 
the tracks (see below).

Personally I'd be leaning towards staying on the train and relaxing. 
The West Coast geography is significantly different from the East Coast 
geography, so there'll be different things to see.   And it'll be a 
relaxing chill out day with panoramic windows.

FWIW, Arthur's Pass walks:

https://www.christchurchnz.com/walk-canterbury/arthurs-pass-and-selwyn/arthurs-pass-walks/

has a few short walks, and a few longer walks, but at a quick glance 
several of them are assuming you're leaving from Arthur's Pass itself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%27s_Pass_(mountain_pass)

rather than the township where the train stops:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%27s_Pass

which is about 5km away, and significantly lower.  Or from somewhere 
else "a few km" from the pass / township.

Which means several of those walking tracks are probably only easily 
accessible by car.  (Some of them seem to start within walking distance 
of the township, but they appear to be the shortest/least scenic ones.)

I'd suggest figuring out a specific reason to stop.  Rather than 
figuring that the second half of the train trip is "not essential".  If 
you only go to Arthur's pass on the train, you'll only see the Southern 
Alps from one side.

Ewen