The JaYmes Escape

It seems that when travelling with very few posessions one gets quite attached to some of them, so when the wind on the TranzAlpine train on Wednesday claimed my black ‘Wind An Sea’ hat from San Diego I was quite sad. I’d worn it all over New Zealand as well as in London and on occasion in Eastern Europe.

Considering how many times I’ve nearly lost hats on my travels it’s amazing that this is the first time. My big Russian hat was nearly left in a hotel in Tallinn, and my Technics beanie spent 10 minutes on the tarmac of a Bus Station in Poland at 4am, on the way to Gdansk. Anyway, I now have a new hat with an embroidered New Zealand silver fern, look out for it in a photo soon.

The final batch of Christchurch pictures is now online. Thanks to Rene and family for making me so at home in The Coachman for so many weeks; those photos are now up and if you’re ever in the area The Coachman is definitely the place to stay.

Also up are photos of the spectacular TranzAlpine train journey and some additions to the West Coast album. I returned to the Pancake rocks at Punakaiki between Greymouth and Westport on a much nicer day with a higher tide. It’s definitely worth a look.

So I left Christchurch early on Wednesday morning and took the TranzAlpine scenic train to Greymouth, where I stopped to visit the Monteith’s brewery (the Tap Room is a Monteith’s bar so it seemed appropriate). Then on Thursday I travlled up the west coast to Westport for a couple of nights. Today I’m heading on to Nelson.

If you haven’t seen them yet there are some great photos of me and the staff in The Tap Room in the Christchurch album, there are a few more to come, plus pictures of the TranzAlpine, as soon as I can find somewhere that lets me do the USB thing.