Day 1 and 2. Christchurch and the TranzAlpine train
After completing my long-haul flight, I arrived in Christchurch on February 1. It was +28 outside. The airport greeted me with an hour-long customs line. After getting through it, I headed late to pick up the car I had booked. The Go Rentals office was 1.5 km from the airport exit. I decided to walk there, although it was possible to call a free shuttle from the office, but I could not properly arrange the pickup point and time in English. In the end, one of those shuttle cars picked me up halfway there. They probably guessed I would walk and went looking for me.
The car pickup process was simple: you pay by card, they hand you the keys, show you the car, start it, and immediately leave. No inspections for scratches or anything else, and you are free to go. I took full insurance. Without it, things might have been more complicated. For example, without insurance they might require a credit card rather than a debit card.
Once behind the wheel, I spent a long time getting used to the right-hand-drive car, then drove circles around nearby roads trying to adapt to left-hand traffic. I approached every turn at intersections only after carefully thinking through what I had to do. I drove like that for about two days in the busy city, and probably because I was thrown straight into that environment, I got used to it fairly quickly.
Next on the plan was checking into the Christchurch hotel I had booked earlier on booking.com. Check-in was uneventful: I arrived, paid by card, got the key, and was shown where the room was. In other countries, showing a passport had always been mandatory.
When I searched for hotels along my route, I tried to choose the cheapest places with private facilities: a bathroom and toilet. In the end, almost all such places also had a small kitchen area with a fridge, kettle, and cutlery. So food was never a problem in New Zealand. I bought everything in supermarkets and made myself ham and cheese sandwiches in the hotel. Over the whole 14-day trip I spent about 8,500 Russian rubles on food.
Supermarkets in New Zealand are quite good. Four Square and Countdown are common, you can find everything there, and they close at convenient hours, usually not earlier than 8 to 10 p.m.
The next morning I was due to take the train to Greymouth and back.
I walked to the station and collected the ticket I had booked in advance through the website.
At first I liked the trip. It reminded me of train rides in Switzerland, but by the end of the journey I realized it had been unnecessary. If you are traveling around New Zealand in your own car, you can drive through all the same places anyway, which I later did, and you can always stop whenever you want to take photos.
When the train arrives in Greymouth, it leaves again about 20 minutes later, so at best you could sprint to the coast, take a few photos, and run back. I decided not to bother. The route takes four hours one way, and the time passes quickly enough, especially after getting used to sitting for so long during a 29-hour flight to New Zealand.
After the train ride I drove around Christchurch a bit more.
The city is decent, but the condition of its roads was terrible. That may be connected to the severe earthquake it suffered a few years earlier. Reconstruction work was actively underway in the city center. I would not recommend stopping in Christchurch purely for sightseeing, but that is just my opinion. I prefer spending more time somewhere beautiful in nature than among things built by people.