My first stop in New Zealand was Christchurch.

It's a nice city, best known for...

...its cathedral!

That wasn't enough to keep me there, however, so I got on this train.

The Tranz Scenic is quite a scenic trip!

To start with it's quite flat...

...then we get some steep river valleys.

The guy changing the points is the driver!

Spooky clouds!

Not so spooky here, for some reason.

A big lake, most of the way across the island.

Here's the river at Greymouth (I think that lake might flow through here).

A crazy rock formation just outside Greymouth.

Some farm sheds on the west coast highway.

Moody clouds in this valley.

The mountains either side of the Franz Josef Glacier reflect nicely in this pool!

The end of the glacier. It used to come almost as far as the camera.

Right at the end. Check out that supraglacial till!

Cor, look at the ogives on that!

Look at that... river...

Moving swiftly on, here are some more moody mountains!

Lake Wanaka, looking rather cloudy.

The rising sun reflects off the clouds, with the Southern Alps in the background.

Speaking of the Southern Alps, here's Mt. Cook - the tallest in New Zealand! The lake in the foreground is that colour because of the "rock flour" from glaciers.