We completed the 648 km journey from Wellington to Auckland by train – The Northern Explorer.
It’s a comfortable train with huge panoramic windows and a carriage on the back that is open to the air and gives a different view of the journey if you want. It has a buffet car with a variety of hot (microwaved) and cold options and it also serves alcohol.
The train travels along the historic North Island Main Trunk railway that was originally completed in 1908 (it took some 30 years to complete due to the tough yerrain it was going through). We had interesting commentary (personal headphones were provided) along the route of both the locations we travelled through and the railway history. We travelled along the gorgeous Kapiti coastline,
through beautiful countryside, over eye watering viaducts, past the volcanos of Tongariro National Park
and through the engineering feat known as the Raurimu Spiral, designed in 1898 to climb the 139 metre ascent. It uses 1 horseshoe curve, 2 90-degree curves, 2 tunnels, and 1 full circle that crosses back over one of the tunnels!
And so we returned to Auckland for 2 grey and rainy days, but the shops and streets are now dressed for Christmas, which was fun to see.
