Sunday 20 Feb—the Tranz Alpine railway runs from Christchurch to Greymouth, across the middle of New Zealand from the East coast to the West coast, over the Alpine range. The crossing takes 4 ½ hours, over Arthur's Pass, and also over 3 viaducts and through 19 tunnels, most of the time hugging the edge of the mountains. One carriage for viewing is open air with just a railing for safety—talk about windblown. Views were stunning, as we trundled over massive riverbeds made millennia ago, where the actual flowing water covers just a narrow stretch of the much wider bed. These very broad river beds, strewn with rocks and boulders and a relatively small stream of water, seem to be a feature all over the South Island. This trip was a good break from driving as we could both fully enjoy the magnificent scenery.

From Greymouth we drive south along the western coast road to Franz Josef Glacier. On the way, we stopped at Hokitika, a small coastal town that our guidebook suggested was worth a visit. Strolling along the very quiet main street (Sunday afternoon), we couldn't pass up the chance for a photo in front of the Hokitika Sock Machine Museum. After the photo we glanced inside the storefront to see what could possibly be inside, and in fact they were selling lovely woolen socks. As i'm always on the lookout for warm socks, in we went. The socks for sale were made from their collection of machines, using gorgeous multi-coloured NZ sheep wool. We started talking to the young woman behind the counter, who seemed happy to have someone to talk to. Well, they do say that there's something for everyone to collect. The founder of this museum had been collecting industrial sock knitting machines for 30 years, and at some point she decided they were taking up too much room at home, so set up this museum to share her passion with the public. These odd-looking machines, small enough to be worked by one person, were made in many countries, including one from Springfield MA (everyone needs socks!). We bought a couple of pairs of socks and then headed out, having elected not to watch the video running on continuous loop, which demonstrated how to use the machines. We then strolled along to the beach, which has great quantities of driftwood (the town was started as a port but it wasn't successful as the harbour was treacherous and many ships were wrecked), where we saw some wonderfully inventive creations built from weirdly shaped pieces of driftwood and rocks. And a slab of old wood carved into a tortoise.

The impressive neoclassical building we spied at the other end of main street turned out to be the local history museum, but was built a century ago as a library with funds from America, after an enterprising local took up an offer by the Andrew Carnegie Trust to provide funds to build libraries anywhere in the world (New Zealand ended up with some dozen or so libraries built from AC's generosity). While this town was richly endowed, rejoicing in the presence of two separate museums, we have noted the strong tendency for nearly every New Zealand town, no matter how small, to offer a local history museum. They tend to be quirky, offbeat, and usually we can find something of interest.