Taieri Gorge Railway, "One of the World's Great Train Trips"

Monday Afternoon, March 21, 2011

After such a rainy morning, we look for a dry warm afternoon and buy the last two tickets for the run on the Limited. We board a restored wooden 1920s car for the round-trip from the historic Dunedin train station, with its foyer bright with Royal Doulton tiles and mosaic floor, to a sunny rural place near the highest point of the railway. There the conductors disengage the locomotive and move it to the other end of the train for the journey back. We have come from a soggy day on the Pacific coast up the mountains through an old gold prospecting area in the sunshine.

The rail line was built from 1879 to 1921 through very rugged mountains, a major engineering feat with about a dozen high trestles. At times we can look forward or backward and see one end of the curving train elevated on these viaducts made of stone and wrought iron. Our four-hour trip is 58km up and 58km back, with intermittent breaks when we are able to disembark and look out over the wilderness and canyons where gold miners searched for fortune. At the top some passengers disembark with their bicycles to continue on the Otago Central Rail Trail toward Wanaka and Queenstown. If we'd had more time and been more organized, we'd have considered doing that.

We're glad to stand up and walk back to our bed and breakfast after so much sitting in the old wooden rail car as it swayed and jolted through the Gorge, even if we must walk in the rain.