A TranzAlpine train journey: luxury in Scenic Plus

At Stillwater I bite into a wagyu sausage roll as the train slides past native ferns. We pass wetlands crammed with flax and tall stands of mossy kahikatea. Inside the carriage the clunk of train wheels is accompanied by the clink of cutlery.

The train stops to pick up more passengers at Moana on the shores of Lake Brunner, the largest lake on the West Coast. At over 40sqkm, Lake Brunner is known in Te Reo as Moana Kōtuku: water of the white heron. 

I settle into my seat, admiring the expansiveness created by glass that stretches up to the ceiling. It’s like sliding along in a river of scenery.  

The cabin crew are all sure-of-foot and friendly, enquiring about people’s travels and home countries as they move through the swaying carriage to deliver trays of drinks with improbable grace.

At Inchbonnie we cross the alpine fault at the juncture of Pacific and Indian-Australian tectonic plates and begin the climb towards the Southern Alps. I marvel at a rainbow hanging in the mist at the head of the valley as I tuck into my cheese platter.

As we climb higher, I see the hills have receding hairlines – naked peaks where the lustrous lower forest doesn’t grow.

Ōtira is home to a collection of tiny railway cottages puffing smoke on a cool afternoon. Here, we pass through a feat of engineering. The Ōtira Tunnel is 8.554km long and took 15 years to construct solely with picks and shovels between 1908-1923. We gain 359m of altitude over 14km; extra locomotives are tacked on to the train to help with the grunt of getting us up the steep gradient. 

We emerge from the tunnel at Arthur’s Pass which, fun fact, is the only town in New Zealand with an apostrophe in its name and is also the highest point of the journey at 737m above sea level. It’s brisk and squally on the train platform, the temperature having plummeted several degrees with the altitude, so I stay in my comfortable seat, eschewing the opportunity to have a photo taken by a sign, despite its unique punctuation.

On the other side of the Southern Alps, the river flows in the opposite direction; native bush gives way to deciduous exotic trees and blonde tussock which contrasts with the dark foliage of beech forest.

‘Waimakariri’ means cold rushing water; that’s exactly what’s happening here – the icy river flowing through braided gravel beds, fringed with autumn gold.

We whizz past Cass railway station, made famous by Rita Angus, in a peach blur.

From the open-air viewing carriage, I gasp at the rapid series of big views and blackness as we shoot through tunnels and over viaducts that sit high above rocky river gorges.

The red painted Staircase Viaduct is, at 73m, the highest in the South Island, spanning 150m across Staircase Gully. Back inside, I bump my forehead against the window like a dork attempting to catch a glimpse of the river far below. 

We reach the Canterbury Plains as twilight sets in. Big green flats with neat hedgerows and broadleaf crops take on a blue filter in the gloaming. The views are mirrored in the hues of the blueberry torte served as the final course of my Scenic Plus meal.

In Darfield we race cars as the road runs parallel to the train tracks. I imagine what we must look like to them, lounging in our glowing glass bubble, hurtling through the dusk.

Soon, it’s too dark to see much more than my own reflection. Staff take last orders for drinks and coffees and gather up empties as they move deftly through the rocking carriage with laden trays.

We ease into our destination, Christchurch City, in a kaleidoscope of lights: headlights, traffic lights the reflections of the train’s blue ceiling patterns mirrored in the dark glass. Arriving well-fed, relaxed and enriched by some of the most majestic scenery in New Zealand, I can attest that spending five hours aboard the TranzAlpine truly is a great journey.