Thursday and Friday of this week I booked 2 scenic train tours: The Taieri Gorge Railway and the Seasider up to Palmerston. The Taieri Gorge trip has been described as "one of the worlds great train trips". I would beg to differ. I found the trip rather boring and I did not think that the scenery was picture worthy nor was it worth the $81 I spent for the ticket. Regardless, I posted pictures and have attached a little synopsis describing the railway history.
"The railway is New Zealand's longest tourist railway and stretches along the former Otago Central Railway from the 4 km peg on KiwiRail's Taieri Branch, 18 km west of Dunedin, to Middlemarch, a distance of some 60 kilometres. Between Dunedin and the start of the line its trains operate on KiwiRail's Main South Line via a running rights agreement.
The line travels through spectacular scenery along the banks of the Taieri River, through numerous tunnels and climbing along the Taieri Gorge to the Strath Taieri. It crosses a dozen viaducts, including the southern hemisphere's largest wrought iron structure, and passes through ten tunnels."
Today, Friday Sept 21, 2012, I took the Seasider Pacific Coast Railway train along the coastline to Palmerston. Unlike yesterday, the skies were bright blue, without clouds, and plenty of sunshine. AND the temperature was close to 60! My kind of afternoon. The views along the coastline were beautiful and the train ride was a pleasant one. I hope these temps stick around because I am getting sick and tired of the 30 degree days we have been experiencing.
