The railway shuttle picked me up at 7:15am for my 8:15am departure on the tranzalpine railway. This trip was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We made our way over the mountains which were snow capped. I stood outside on the open aired viewing platform for a long time in the hope of seeing snow but eventually gave up when I couldn't feel my face anymore. For those of you who don't know I had actually never seen snow before until Arthur's Pass where we stopped for 5 minutes so passengers could get off. As we were pulling into the station it looked like it had started raining. WELL! When I realised it was snow you can just imagine how excited I was!! I could not get off the train fast enough. It was different to how I expected it to be...I didn't expect it to be so wet but I guess it is water so it would be. Anyway, I am now in love with the SNOW! It took us another two hours to get to Greymouth passing through the Atiora tunnel which is 8.5km in length! It's scary to thyink that there is ahuge mountain on top of you as you are travelling through it.

We arrived in Greymouth at 1.45pm and needless to say it's called 'Grey' for a reason. Not the most exciting town in the world and very cold! I took the long trek up a few hills to the hostel only to be faced with four sets of stairs up to reception! They don't think about backpacks! I was b*****ed and only absolutley ecstatic to cump my bag in my room. The hostel was an old church and even had a chapel! The lounge was cozy with a fireplace and was where I spent the afternoon reading. I met some great people form France and the UK and went on a brwery tour with Alistair, Sarah and Deanna which was great. We were shown around the Monteith's Brewery and then given 7 beers to taste afterwards. My favourite was the 'Radler' which has citrus incorporated into it. After the tour wer were given a coupon for apint at the Railway Hotel where we went to have dinner. Ali and Sarah are fantastic! Ali has a degree in Medieval History so you can just imagine all our conversations!! Spent the evening chatting before going back to the hostel.