On a bright, clear fall morning, the train from Wellington to Auckland clatters away from the rail station precisely as scheduled at 7:55. The temperature hovers coolly in the mid-50s, not at all cold, and quite typical for a Southern Hemisphere fall morning.
On the 423-mile journey northward through the rural heart of New Zealand’s North Island, the Northern Explorer, as the train is known and which is owned and operated by Great Journeys of New Zealand, will make several stops, including Ohakune, Tongariro National Park, Otorohanga, Hamilton and finally, some 12 hours later, Auckland.
The Northern Explorer is New Zealand’s longest-running passenger train, tracing its beginnings to 1883, and one of the world’s greatest rail journeys. The ride is spectacular, simply breathtaking, and arcs across a swatch of one of the world’s most captivating and isolated countries.
