It was another very early morning; we arose at 5.45 as a taxi was ordered for 6.45 so we could be at the station to check in at 7. We were slightly amazed to find Wellington Station has a Platform 9 3/4 but it proved, on closer examination, to be a dry cleaners!
The train left at 7.25 and we said goodbye to beautiful Wellington harbour and passed through the northern suburbs of Wellington. The hillsides were completely covered with wild arum lilies and drifts of beautiful lilac coloured wild flowers which I wanted to photograph but the reflections from the train window were just too bad and we were supposed to be staying in our seats for ticket collection. The train was also travelling very fast, so a picture I did attempt, of a small valley completely filled with arum lilies, was nothing but a screen full of streaks.
We skirted the coast for a short while, then passed further inland. We were on a plain, with mountains in the background. Here, I dropped off to sleep, having had a short night and not a very good one - Paul made us a cup of coffee rather late, and I seemed to spend all night chasing escaped pet rabbits for some reason. When I woke up, we had ascended onto the volcanic plain, and were surrounded by such a beautiful landscape that I had immediately to run out to the viewing deck -or 'dick' as it is pronounced here! Everything was very green, the hills were high and had rather sharp edges; it is a landscape that looks young and not worn down.
We began to pass the dramatic white cliffs of the Rangitikei River
which continued for quite a few miles.
The landscape was so beautiful I seem to have taken a camera full of photographs. Some of the hills looked very sharp and volcanic.
Just before lunch, we could see Mount Ruapehu.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to see Mount Tongariro or Mount Ngauruhoe, which had both disappeared behind mist and clouds. We stopped for lunch at Ohakune station, where there was home-cooked food available, which made a nice change from the train food.
After lunch, we had continued views of Mt. Ruapehu and I seem to have at least a dozen photos. We passed over the highest viaduct on this line, though I made rather a mess of the photo by pressing the power button instead of the shutter; the photo I eventually got was not so good.
We passed through hilly terrain covered with rain forest, until you wondered how anybody managed to build a railway at all. We went over the Raurimu Spiral, which is a gives a sort of corkscrew shape to the line. You look down 132 metres to a station 1 km away which you will eventually reach After covering 11 km. Sadly, pictures don't show this, especially when taken over the shoulders or under the armpits of very big men who are hogging the railing space on the very small viewing deck.
The landscape continued hilly and volcanic looking for some time,
but eventually we were back onto the plains. At Hamilton, it started to rain quite hard and suddenly we were only an hour away from Auckland.
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