Thursday, January 19, 2012

Arthur's Pass (NZ) by rail

For a day of R&R in New Zealand, took the train up to Arthur's Pass, in the Southern Alps, and did a little bit of sightseeing and hiking.





This is a Kea, the world's only alpine parrot. I wasn't able to get a good shot of its bright red under-wing plumage because there were multiple parrots ganging up on me and trying to steal my lunch.

As an aside, I had a beer and a pork pie snack in the late afternoon in an Arthur's Pass restaurant/cafe called the Wobbly Kea. The music playing in that place definitely transported me to a time and place far from the South Island. I sat down to Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" which smoothly segued into "Rhinestone Cowboy" then "Coward of the County" and finally "Jolene" before I moved to an outside table. Don't get me wrong, "Jolene" is a great song and I do respect The Man in Black, but somehow it was all just too far off for a alpine cafe in New Zealand. When I went back in to drop off my dishes, the stereo was off.

1 comment:

  1. Oh yes, agree with you about those parrots! They're very entertaining and the amusing name 'The Wobbly Kea' almost gives an impression that a kea might have cleaned up the rest of wayward glass of NZ beer and staggered out of the bar! TranzAlpine a tremendous trip. Enjoyed it my travels to the South Island. Found some good info and that I could book online through here http://www.nzbyrail.com/tranzalpine-christchurch-to-greymouth/
    Seems the service is also getting the new carriages the Coastal Pacific train already has too.

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