Of course, you do!
The Northern Explorer is way to go. It winds it's way from Wellington to Auckland up and over the spine of the northern island. It uses the same equipment as the TransAlpine. Nice, new coaches, cafe car and open air sightseer. Hardly a dull moment along the way.
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| Ready to depart Wellington |
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| Coach with glass in roof. |
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| Sightseer car |
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| Rolling out of Wellington |
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| Passing morning commuter train inbound |
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| Tasman Sea |
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| Headed north along the sea |
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| Passing one of many freight trains |
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| New Zealand farmland |
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| Moos |
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| Seeing sights |
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| Railfan fun |
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| Lots of curves |
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| Former sand dunes now sandstone cliffs |
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| Our neighbor across the aisle |
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| Most of the route from Wellington to Auckland is electrified. There are a couple of gaps, still, so our train was diesel powered. On 2300 HP locomotive was more than enough to hold 62 mph track speed. |
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| Grasslands |
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| Red deer ranching |
Station on southern edge of Tongariro National Park.
Volcanoes in the park
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| Station stop within the park |
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| Tongariro National Park |
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| Entering Raurimu Spiral Tunnel |
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| A meet near the bottom of the grade |
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| Electric locomotive waiting for us to pass |
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| Rural late Fall scene |
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| Hills and pastureland |
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| A babbling brook? |
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| Last major town before suburban Auckland |
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| Edge of the the commuter train district - Papakura |
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| Strand Station, Auckland. This tiny, temporary station is the last stop while the new rail tunnel is being built at Britomart station |
This concludes the eight...er...eleven hour trip.
Next up: Dan jumps off perfectly good bridge.
Next up: Dan jumps off perfectly good bridge.
Each set of photos is better than the sets before it. Does it ever stop?
ReplyDeleteI never rode from Auckland to Wellington, but after reading about your trip and seeing the pictures, it is on my list for my next trip to Australia and New Zealand.
ReplyDeleteThe Aussies and Kiwis take so much better care of their countries than the U.S. I don't remember seeing trash along the highways and railways that is so common in the U.S.
I just got back from taking the Texas Eagle from Dallas to San Antonio. On some stretches of the route, especially south of Fort Worth, one has the feeling of traveling through a garbage dump.