Maybe 7.25 was a little optimistic for the shuttle. Half-an-hour later we decided to walk around the park to the railway station. In common with all other landmarks, the NZ government doesn't want you to know where it is so our half-hour walk was nearly an hour long trudge in a quite hot sun. Great weather for a scenic train ride across the country, not so good for tramping around town. At the station there's a moment of horror as the ticket man fails to see our names on the rota. Fortunately, for us, poor eyesight is to blame.
The journey itself is an ordinary timetabled trip with plenty of people being dropped off and picked up en route. The difference is that the chief steward keeps us up to date with informative and mostly pertinent tidbits as we go along. Foolishly, I discover, shortly into the trip, that I didn't take my hay-fever pill this morning. My Beconase nasal spray seems to have died a death in the heat so I'm reliant on my extraordinarily large supply of Benadryl pills. I'm not sure why I have so many, I must have bought a large box several weeks running without realising, but it's a good job. Unless you forget to take one and don't have any with you (mental note: put a tab of pills in day sack). So my trip over blurs with a gentle histamine reaction. That's not an awful thing as the weather is almost perfectly clear and boiling hot. Green or bare mountains aren't that interesting to me -- not as much as a good layering of snow. Opposite me are sat two women who language I finally decide is Dutch (based on a book title which looked Dutch) but it involved far to much phlegm clearing to my liking. Welsh with more hcctch!
On the West side of the Alps we hit speed restrictions. It seems the NZ safety people have determined that the track might buckle if the rails exceed 42C, which they are doing in the clear sunshine. We're restricted to 40kmh down into Greymouth. A suitable amount of rest has cured most of my hay fever and we scoff some lunch in the rather short 55 minutes they give you in Greymouth before waiting for the train to reappear.
We take advatage of the open viewing car on the way back which proves to be my downfall. Within a couple of minutes my hayfever is totally debilitating, I sneeze so much I develop a cough, my skin is supersensitive as are my eyes. Normally, lying down in a cool dark place is the order of the day. Sadly we're restricted to 40 kmh on the way back and the sun beats down into the carriage. I don't see a lot of the return trip.
[In Christchurch] a taxi back [to the hostel] which even we know is taking the long way round but I for one don't care. The moment I was in the room I was popping a pill. The pill does half the job. One nostril deflames and works again but the other is a bit more stubborn and throbs and sneezes all evening. I try to make it mentally go away but that's tricky when fluid is running from your nose and you're left convulsing by a sneeze. There's been a dull ache down the right side of my nose from my sinus to my jaw. It's generally unpleasant.
Dorset House, Christchurch S43.52238 E172.62747 Elev. -18m!
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.