Touring New Zealand by train

ANTHONY Dennis explores New Zealand on a coastal train and sees a lot of wildlife during the scenic ride.

Escape NZ rail

I'VE seen a lot of creatures while riding on trains.

Mobs of kangaroos and flocks of emus in outback Australia; wild horses on the hoof in Kazakhstan; a farmer snoozing atop his motionless obedient ox  - his face covered by a conical hat - in the middle of a Vietnamese rice field.

I once watched a wandering sacred cow nearly board a train on a railway platform at Varanasi in India, before I'd even managed to get on.

Most recently I've seen seals from a train. It was aboard the Coastal Pacific in New Zealand.

When they say "Coastal", they really mean it. This train, ostensibly a tourist service, runs for nearly 100km, between Picton and Christchurch on the South Island, clinging close to the Pacific Ocean coastline. 

Indeed, so near to the sea along one section of its route does the Coastal run that you can nearly see the whites (or is it blacks?) of the eyes (and the whiskers, too) of scores of fur seals lolling on seaside rocks. 

Seals are one thing. To see a whale you really need to de-train, as they say, from the Coastal Pacific at the seaside town of Kaikoura, about midway between Picton and Christchurch, and break your journey for a night or two. At Kaikoura you can buy a ticket for a spot on a whale-watching boat. 

I'd begun this journey, not on the northern tip of the South Island but the southern tip of the North Island.

From Wellington, I took the Interislander ferry across the Cook Straits, a 92km, three-hour voyage threading its way through the scenic Queen Charlotte Sound to Picton, the departure point for the Coastal Pacific. 

The train, operated by KiwiRail and formerly known as the TranzCoastal, was suspended for about six months last year following the Christchurch earthquake of February 22.

When it was restarted it had a new name (its original one, actually, dating from the 1980s).

The train's now sporting smart new carriages with panoramic windows (perfect for spotting seals) and comfortable seating.

There's also the existing open-air viewing carriage where you can cop a blast of freezing Kiwi winds and that's in summer. 

All in all, the Coastal Pacific must rank as one of the great small train journeys of the world along with another NZ train, the TranzAlpine that travels, coast-to-coast, across the spectacular Southern Alps between Christchurch and Greymouth, all in well under five hours. 

My ultimate destination is Christchurch. The city is literally picking up the pieces from the earthquake disaster and welcoming tourists again. Hotels, shops and restaurants are reopening. 

But first, my accommodation for an overnight break in my journey in Kaikoura is Hapuku Lodge.

It consists of five tree-houses overlooking the towering Kaikoura Mountains, when they're not obscured by cloud, and a verdant paddock full of deer. Inside the tree-house are mod cons and the living and sleeping area set delightfully amid the canopies of native manuka trees.

As diverting as Hapuku is, the allure for anyone visiting Kaikoura is the prospect of seeing whales in their deep-sea habitat. The Maori-founded and operated Whale Watch celebrates 25 years of operation next year and is a world-class eco-tourism venture. 

The Maori have lived off the sea for centuries, feasting on crayfish that are still abundant in this part of NZ.

It wasn't until the 1840s that Europeans arrived and established a whaling station today, the whale-hunters are like me, armed with Nikons rather than harpoons. 

Out on the ocean with Whale Watch it's a monochrome world, with our vessel and another in the fleet offering the only note of colour.

It's rainy and the sea is slate-grey against a salt-white sky, with the Seaward Kaikoura Range enveloped in thick patches of cloud. 

The first part of the cruise is devoted to searching, to no avail, for whales any whales, and that can include minke, pilot, killer, humpbacks, southern rights and, most commonly, sperm whales.

At one point, the skipper stops the boat to dip a hand-held sonar device, shaped like a waterproof didgeridoo, into the water. He detects some sounds in the deep nearby and hurriedly returns to the wheelhouse and we're off again.

But not before we're chased by a pod of typically playful hector dolphins, endemic to these parts, which deliver a fine interlude before the main act.

Eventually we encounter the sperm whale for which we've been searching, spouting a tell-tale fine spray of water high in the air, its grey mass teasingly breaching the surface of the choppy seas.

After 15 minutes or so it disappears beneath the surface with the characteristic final, thrilling flash of tailfin.

Later, we receive an encore performance when the whale resurfaces and repeats the whole process as our boat bobs the required distance away.

Back on the train and aboard one of the Coastal Pacific's new carriages, we head inland, veering away from the coast towards the patchwork of farmlands and wineries of the Canterbury Plains.

We've well and truly left behind the sea creatures of the Kaikoura coast and the only animals to be seen are ... sheep.

 ** The writer was a guest of Air New Zealand and Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism.