Northern Explorer
After a couple days in Wellington it was time to head home to Auckland via the Northern Explorer. This 11 hour train departs Wellington at 07h55 and traverses the North Island before arriving in Tāmaki Makaurau at 18h50.
While it was a dry morning in Wellington it soon started raining as we passed Porirua and headed up the Kapiti Coast. I just sat back and relaxed rather than brave a wet viewing carriage. Once we got up towards Ōtaki things dried up a bit. The scenery wasn't too exciting at first but we did get a good look at the new bridge for the Peka Peka to Ōtaki Expressway.
Things began to improve past Ōtaki with some nice bends and green countryside.
This part of the country is very agricultural, with Palmerston North as the main inland hub for the Lower North Island.
Palmerston North was a major pick-up point for the train. Really demonstrating that despite this officially being a tourist service, it has the potential to be so much more.
The weather continued improving, along with the scenery, as we headed towards the centre of the North Island.
We crossed some major viaducts which offered impressive views over the increasingly severe landscapes.
Then before long we left the sheep-grazing plains behind us and reached the Central Plateau.
This high altitude part of the country reminds me a bit of Shetland where I was born, with its barren tree-less landscape.
Once again, the weather began to turn, so I retreated back inside for a while. Despite that, these landscapes were probably one of the most enjoyable parts of the journey because they were so unlike the rest of it – almost otherworldly.
Then, passing Ohakune and National Park, we began to cross a series of viaducts. My favourite of which was the Hapuawhenua Viaduct below.
It was quite a challenge to photograph these viaducts, especially as it felt half the train entered the viewing car as we neared them!
I was a little disappointed we couldn't see Mount Ruapehu due to low clouds, but fortunately there was still plenty else to look at in this section.
We descended from the Central Plateau using the Raurimu Spiral. An impressive feat of engineering involving three hairpin bends, a horseshoe curve, and two tunnels that allows trains to ascend and descend 139m in altitude. It was pretty cool to feel the train take all the corners in short succession.
Once down on the flat again we entered the Waikato, where rather than sheep it is dairy cattle that is king.
From here, the journey, scenery-wise wasn't too exciting so I took the opportunity to read some of my book while periodically staring out the window. We dropped off about half the train at Hamilton and then made our way to Auckland in the dark before arriving exactly on time at The Strand.
Overall this train was less exciting than the Coastal Pacific but by no means boring. It felt a more practical journey, rather than simply a tourist service, stopping at so many larger regional centres along the journey – if only it ran more than thrice weekly! I'd recommend doing it at least once, it was thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable.
