TranzAlpine Train 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 at Springfield. (Option to ride from Christchurch if you prefer a 2.5-hour train experience.)

From Springfield, you'll board the TranzAlpine train, which will take you alongside the Waimakariri River and up through the scenic Arthur's Pass National Park. Expect to see 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, along with several hundred other people, and then you're in a tunnel for the next 10 minutes, missing out on 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 engines. 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 visitors. You can enjoy short walks in the Native Mountain Beech forest and many glorious photo opportunities to view alpine plants, waterfalls, and the birdlife.

Finally, I'll take you to the Arthur's Pass National Park Visitors Centre to view many of their informative interpretations. From here, I'll find a scenic location overlooking the national park where you can enjoy a 2-course homemade picnic lunch from my organic garden.

After lunch, I'll drive you back towards Christchurch. The journey takes you 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 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 the 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 more time to explain the scenery and, more importantly, I can stop for photos along the way if you wish.

The train trip really is a wonderful experience, but I have to say doing the 11-hour journey is rather too long, and perhaps the most important point is that one of the most scenic parts of the journey you are actually in the tunnel for 8.5 kilometres. If you prefer to do the tour on your own, I would recommend getting off at Arthurs Pass and enjoying many of the short walks, but again 5.5 hours can be slightly too long for many of us with not a huge range of activities beyond hiking.

My vehicle is a 5-seater BYD Shark 4WD, so I can comfortably host 4 guests. My tour price starts at $700 per person for 2 guests, but I'm happy to negotiate a discounted rate per person for groups of 3 or 4 guests. I also have a bus licence, so I'm able to charter a bus for groups larger than 4.