Winter at Lake Sarah from the TranzAlpine viewing carriage.
Touring Routes

Arriving by train: Christchurch to Nelson

Best enjoyed in winter, this trip starts with a spectacular train ride through snow-capped mountains.

Category
Themes
Duration
3 days 2 nights
Distance
550 mi/886 km
Best time
Winter

Christchurch to Greymouth

5 hrs, 244 km

With snow on the Southern Alps, winter is the most spectacular season to take the TranzAlpine train. From Christchurch, you’ll travel across the Canterbury Plains, alongside braided rivers, through dramatic gorges and snowy mountain passes — before descending towards the West Coast, where lush green rainforest replaces the golden tussocks of alpine meadows.

Pick up your hire car, and explore Greymouth and surrounds. Before it was known for coal, pioneers came looking for gold in these parts. Find out more at nearby replica gold-rush village Shantytown, where you can even try your luck panning for a flake or two.

Hire a bike and experience the Coast’s natural beauty on a ride on the West Coast Wilderness Trail, an easy ride for all abilities.

Wrap up your day with a visit to the Pounamu Pathway Experience in Māwhera (Greymouth) — an immersive journey through West Coast stories, culture and history, beautifully told through cutting-edge digital storytelling.

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Local Attractions

Operators
Hokitika
West Coast Wilderness Trail.

Free

West Coast Wilderness Trail

The West Coast Wilderness Trail showcases some of the most outstanding scenery on the South Island’s West Coast with a diversity of landscapes second to none. Grab your bike and explore this Grade 2 Easy trail.

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Operators
Grey District
Shantytown Village from the lookout

$95

Shantytown Heritage Park

Shantytown provides a real sense of what it was like to live in gold rush era New Zealand. Allowing visitors to participate in activities and observe our country as it was during a time of great immigration, exploration and innovation.

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Operators
Grey District
blackball salami

Blackball Salami Company Limited

Our salami is made from a variation of beef, pork and venison.

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Greymouth to Westport

1 hr 30 min, 101 km

Hit the Great Coast Road, heralded as one of the top ten coastal drives in the world. Rugged seas and limestone cliffs topped with towering temperate rainforest make for impressive views. Stop at Punakaiki Pancake Rocks & Blowholes to see the strangely stacked rocks jutting out into the sea while waves blast through the blowholes in between them. There’s plenty of short walks in the surrounding Paparoa National Park.

The historic settlement of Charleston is not the bustling gold mining town it once was, but there’s still underground exploration happening in the hills. Don a thick wetsuit and go cave rafting with Underworld Adventures, floating through the darkness lit only by thousands of glow worms.

Westport is well known for its rich coal mining history, on display at Coaltown Museum, including a simulated underground mine and a wagon used on the nearby Denniston Incline. Freshen up with a wintry walk on the Cape Foulwind Walkway, where you’ll see fur seals sheltering from the rugged Tasman Sea.

Detour north to Karamea and the prehistoric treasures of the Ōpārara Arches.

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Local Attractions

Westport to Nelson

3 hrs, 222 km

Set off to Nelson with a stop at Buller Gorge Adventure and Heritage Park. Zipline across the churning Buller River or walk (or sway) across New Zealand’s longest swing bridge. There’s even a jet boat ride that Lonely Planet describes as one of the most scenic in the world.

Warm up at Maruia Hot Springs, a short detour en route to Nelson, where natural geothermal pools are surrounded by leafy beech forest and snow-dusted mountains. Take a yoga class, treat yourself to a massage, enjoy a nourishing meal, and retreat to a cosy cabin for the night.

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Local Attractions