Read, Write, Ramble

 We checked out of the hotel early this morning and were on the coach ready to depart at 08:00. As this was the first day of the 11 day rail tour called Spirit of the Antipodes, those of us who had enjoyed the pre-tour were now joined by some new travellers, with more to be collected along the way.  The coach took us back to the Glenbrook Vintage Railway Station where Steam Locomotive Ab608 ‘Passchendaele’ was all fired up and ready to take us on our first trip south to Tokoroa.   We initially travelled on the historic Waiuku Branch Line before joining the North Island Main Trunk Line, stopping at Pukekohe to pick up passengers. The scenery was that of lush farmland before we reached the Waikato River where we passed through significant swamplands.  At one point we were delayed in a passing loop by a passenger train. The delay was prolonged by the train driver who had been using his iPhone to measure speed, the speedometer cable on the train having broken on a recent...

 Today was steam train day - a taster for what is to come over the next few days.  We had a leisurely breakfast and loaded our luggage onto the coach at 10 before travelling south of Auckland to Glenbrook.  Here there was a steam train waiting for us to jump on board and feast on a delicious high tea.  While we ate and sipped our teas and coffees (not an easy feat on a moving steam train!) we travelled some 7.5 kms to the end of the line at Waiuku, where some of us chose to stay on board in our warm, sunny seats in the Parlour Car, and enjoy a second cup of coffee,  while the train was stationary. Others hopped off and listened to a talk about the heritage railway from one of our tour leaders, Sean.   On the way back to the station we all disembarked and stood near the line as the train backed up and then flew past us at full speed for a photo/video opportunity. Very impressive.  A little further on we again stopped and disembarked, this time for a bri...

 Our group of 18 met on time in the foyer of the hotel, ready for our 9am departure, but this time it was the coach that was late arriving, apparently caught in traffic.  We were away at 9:15 and the first stop was the old Railway Station so people could admire the very ornate and grand entry and concourse. I suspended my trauma from staying in the accommodation there last year, and stepped inside for a brief reminder of the former grandeur of the old building, which has unfortunately been allowed to become sad and rundown.  We moved onto the War Memorial Museum, and as we were a little early, had time for coffee before the doors to the galleries opened. Wallsy went straight to the war history gallery and I went straight to the gift shop, however the prices were extortionate, so I set off to find Wallsy.  An hour definitely wasn’t long enough to do the museum justice and we were herded  back onto the coach all too soon, headed for MOTAT, the Museum of Transport ...

There’s one in every group and we’ve already identified the one in our pre-tour tour group! But I am getting ahead of myself. The day was ours to do as we liked, so after breakfast we checked out the new Auckland underground rail loop and the shiny new stations with wide uncluttered concourses and multiple levels of escalators to reach the platforms (3 levels at Karanga-a-Hape!).  We exited each of the three new stations (the red square on the map below) to check out the area, before moving onto the next.  At the first, Te Waihorotiu, we popped out right beside the Civic Theatre where we saw Jesus Christ Superstar last night. After a bit of wandering we found the impressive Town Hall building, the Strand Arcade, and then dropped into a nearby OpShop before returning to the underground and boarding the next train.  We had already visited the Karangahape area, but took a brief walk, and found another OpShop to check out, before re-entering the station and heading for the th...

 Again, I woke 5 minutes before the alarm. I’m not sure why I bother to set one on my phone when my body clock seems to have an inbuilt alarm system. This time it was 05:40 and we needed to be at the bus stop over the road in plenty of time for a 6:45 pick up, because today we were going to Hobbiton.  As someone who had read the Hobbit way back when I was 14 or 15 years old, and watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy when the films were released in the early 2000s, I was excited. As someone who is not familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, Wallsy was probably less so, but he happily came along for the ride.  The coach collected us right at the appointed time and our Great Sights tour began. We soon had all 40 passengers on board and were heading out of Auckland, the driver assuring us, that despite the forecast rain, the day was going to be fine.  He talked continuously, some of it interesting, much of it neither relevant nor captivating, so much so that Wallsy popped h...