On the first of January, all four of us headed north to Kawakawa to see the Bay of Islands Railway.
They have a steam engine, "Gabriel", which needs a new boiler, a rotation of named diesel engines and an assortment of rolling stock which are named after native birds. We travelled up the line on "Blue Heron", a semi-open observation car with benches placed lengthways down the centre.
we rode on "Esmae" about 4.7km to Taumarere Station, just shy of the longest, curved wooden bridge in the southern hemisphere. Esmae is a Drewry 0-6-0. She was built is 1949, and was gifted to the railway along with Lennie. Both came from Whakatane. Esmae is named after the donor's wife. Our consist was made up of "Moa", "Blue Heron", "King Fisher", "Weka" and "Tui".
The bridge is currently not safe for trains to cross, but is used as part of the national cycleway. As such, the open car, "Weka", is fitted with special racks that can hold bicycles safely for travel either up or down the line, savings the pedallers a fair bit of work on hot days.
One highlight of the trip is the rare, one of a kind "Lava Tree". The fruit is hard and very ripe in hot weather. Some passengers missed it on the way up, so the train slows down on the return.
We arrived at Tumarere station where our guard, Dennis, gave us a talk on the history of the line and the details of the curved bridge which leads to Opua. While there, I wandered around getting more photos of the bridge, engine and stock, while John chatted to the driver, Fritz. That led to me being invited to ride back to town in the cab! That was great, and riding down the centre of the main street of Kawakawa, with SH1 traffic on either side, was amazing.
More information of this fantastic sight can be found here: Bay of Islands Vintage Railway .
Below are a few photos taken at the wharf in Opua of the railway lines still in place. Quite extensive!
PHOTOS TO FOLLOW! they are on my camera and cannot be accessed while on holiday.