Day 1 Wellington to Hamilton Sun Jun 22
Hilary took me to the train station at 7a.m. and was breathalysed on the way back! The police were trying to catch people who’d partied all night after the international rugby, fortunately, although we’d had several glasses of wine the night before, she was fine! As predicted, it was pouring with rain, and then we had to get the bus from Palmerston North to National Park, a 3 hour journey, because of a freight train de-railment on Saturday night. So I missed seeing some of the spectacular bridges and viaducts, and then National Park could have been anywhere. I met a couple who had come down on Friday, when the weather was beautiful, and they could see Mount Taranaki (Egmont) in one direction and Mount Ruapehu (active volcano) in the other, such a shame. So I’ll have to do it all again one day. At National Park station all the passengers from the train down from Auckland and we from the south ate lunch in the cafe and waited while the engine was run around to the other end (hence we sat backwards on our onward journey, rather strange) and the luggage was transferred. Several times train staff came in asking if there were any more passengers for Wellington and then the buses left and we got on the train. Unfortunately, one woman and her child were still on the platform! It turned out she should have got on the bus, it was our conjecture that she was foreign and was going to a station en route, so didn’t understand that the train/bus was eventually bound for Wellington. Being NZ, we all had to wait while one of the buses turned around and came back for them. One back-packer also got off the train and got on the bus when the announcement was made that the train was going to Auckland, not Wellington!
I did get to go around the famous spiral, where the line goes through a complete circle, 3 horse shoe curves and 2 short tunnels, taking 11.5k to travel 5.5k in a straight line down. There is one tale told of the consternation of a train driver, who, seeing red tail lights ahead, brought his freight train to an emergency stop, only to find he had caught up with his own guard’s van!
We were 45 mins late at Hamilton, I had phoned the B&B to let them know, but Fred had already left to meet me at the station and hadn’t taken his mobile. He was very grumpy when he picked me up, but fortunately mellowed later on. I had dinner with them, Fred is a Dutchman who’s been in NZ for 55 years, Diana is a Kiwi of Irish descent, ex-farmers who have done B&B for 30 years. It was very pleasant talking to them and a very good job I didn’t have to go out, since it was still raining, and cold with it! Their house was beautiful, very close to the Waikato river, it would be nice in summer.
I did get to go around the famous spiral, where the line goes through a complete circle, 3 horse shoe curves and 2 short tunnels, taking 11.5k to travel 5.5k in a straight line down. There is one tale told of the consternation of a train driver, who, seeing red tail lights ahead, brought his freight train to an emergency stop, only to find he had caught up with his own guard’s van!
We were 45 mins late at Hamilton, I had phoned the B&B to let them know, but Fred had already left to meet me at the station and hadn’t taken his mobile. He was very grumpy when he picked me up, but fortunately mellowed later on. I had dinner with them, Fred is a Dutchman who’s been in NZ for 55 years, Diana is a Kiwi of Irish descent, ex-farmers who have done B&B for 30 years. It was very pleasant talking to them and a very good job I didn’t have to go out, since it was still raining, and cold with it! Their house was beautiful, very close to the Waikato river, it would be nice in summer.
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