New Zealand has reasonable a train system that serves the major metro areas, and three seasonal trains aimed at the tourist/traveler market. They run from October until the end of February, New Zealand’s summer.
The Overlander runs from Auckland all the way down North Island to Wellington, the national capital. The Coastal Train leaves Wellington and takes the ferry to South Island and then down the coast (hence the name!) to Christchurch the main city on South Island. The third service is the TranzAlpine that crosses South Island to Greymouth. The first two are all day trips and the TranzAlpine is a half-day. Trains run once a day in either direction on the Overlander and Coastal so you had better not be late. Full fare on the Overlander is about USD$95 one way with various discounts based on availability. Many people do a round trip from Christchurch. I am planning to do the TranzAlpine and took the Overlander yesterday (Wednesday).
The train leaves at 7.25am so an early start and an easy check in right by the train.
Heavy luggage in a separate compartment and seats are assigned right there by the train. It is pretty much full and only makes limited stops.
There are four cars and the rear most has a bench type seating area for viewing, and up front after the luggage car and locomotive is an open viewing area with great views off the side.
The only challenge is that it is noisy out there and you do not get any warning of some of the spectacular sights that are plentiful throughout the journey. I could not help make comparisons with the Shinkansen in Japan that is totally efficient very smooth high speed transportation and this very pleasant much more relaxed travel that is much more my style I believe. Each have their place in life, but are generally indicative of the lifestyle!
The first 45 minutes or so are moving through the suburbs and industrial areas and then it is out into the country and numerous dairy farms and small towns and villages. Later in the morning the train starts a gradual climb up to a plateau and there is a change to more rugged scenery and sheep farming. One of the Kiwis on the train said that the trend is towards dairy and away from sheep farming. I think he said there are 4.5 million cows and the aforementioned 40 million sheep. Clearly there is a way to go to have the cows take over (based on numbers anyway)
There is a section as you come up to the lunch stop where the train has to spiral up to gain height while maintaining a reasonable grade.
I will see if I can find a link that describes it , but it is a steep climb where you can look back and see the track below and behind you. What is incredible to me (and this applies to most railway systems) is that all of this was completed over 100 years ago and without the use of modern ultra reliable Caterpillar machines! Just the planning and design work is incredible as there was (of course) no GPS or even airplanes for aerial surveys or planning alternative routes.
I took lots of photos, but frankly very few of them begin to do justice to the magnificent scenery to the point where I am almost reluctant to post them, other than some that will give a general sense of what the journey was like. Not long after the spiral the train stopped for 30 minutes at the National Park stop where there is a pleasant well-staffed little café that is geared to a sudden influx of visitors as the trains arrive. The southbound train arrives first and very shortly after the northbound.
We had three different crews and three locomotives. A large section of the route is now electrified, so from Hamilton until just after lunch we had an electric locomotive and diesel powered for the two other sections. The changes were quick. There is work to electrify some more of the system closer to Wellington and also installation of parallel double track. The majority of the route is single track with sidings every now and again to accommodate trains from the other direction.
Ohakune is the stop just after the national park where the locomotives and crew change and is close to the highest point on the track at just over 2000ft. Judging by the sign nearly everything is metric, they just did not get around to changing this sign yet!
Many of the Mauri names for places sound like they are from Hawaii and I am sure there are connections all across the south Pacific.
I met lots of interesting people on the train, including a guy of my sort of age who spent the last 12 years working for a power company in Tasmania at a hydro electric plant. He lived in a remote cottage above the station and maintained a wooden pipe that few water from a lake into the power plant. Also a lady who had lived in Wollangong Australia most of her life (my daughter Sara did Summer school there) and was born in Leicester (UK) where I was also born and lived for many years. Another lady, an occupational therapist who was from Orkney, very close to where I was in Shetland and she knew all about Up Helly Aa. There was a family from Co Tipperary in Ireland on the way to a family wedding also.
I like the red sign. Effective communication!
308D with railcar attachment
The afternoon ride bought more spectacular scenery with a couple of really deep gorges, and eventually onto a run along the coast and through some tunnels and into Wellington around 7.30pm. Wellington, or what I have seen of it so far, is a very hilly place and it was a steep climb to he place I am staying at. I rounded out the day with a couple of cold beers and slept very well in a very comfortable bed.
It is difficult for me to communicate the magnificence of the scenery, and to come up with a reason that only 4 million people live here. Granted it is summer and I have not experienced winter, and it is somewhat remote by most standard, but all the evidence suggests that people have the right approach to life and they have achieved the elusive “work/life balance” that we all talk about and are looking for.
I will be interested to see if I hold this belief after another couple of weeks.
I suspect I will not even scratch the surface in that time.
