Rose Brooks

Episode 796 – The Northern Explorer Scenic (& Culinary) Train to Auckland

What a civilized way to travel.

And what a lot of food.

We boarded the New Zealand Railways Northern Explorer at 07:30 this morning, to find white linen tablecloths and carafes of cold water waiting for us at our seats in the Scenic Plus panoramic car.

That set the tone for a day of beautiful views and culinary delights.

The train crew laying tablecloths in preparation for our boarding.
Ted was ready!

Shortly after departure, barista coffee and tea service was offered. Ted and I both started our days with flat whites.

Next came a light fragrant raspberry friand, baked fresh in the local kitchen and served warm. I had to look up what a friand was. According to Google it’s “a small, moist and light French-inspired almond cake, highly popular in Australia and New Zealand as a café staple.”

Next came the hot breakfast: a farm-fresh seasonal vegetable frittata with spiced breakfast beans and local crispy bacon, paired with Hunters MiruMiru NV (Marlborough) – a refined traditional-method sparkling from one of Marlborough’s founding wine families. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir create creamy berry fruit, biscuity richness, and fine bubbles with a lingering finish.

Our menus included a map showing the source of some of our meals’ ingredients.

Because sitting on a train is apparently incredibly strenuous, two hours later there was lunch: Big Glory Bay glazed salmon with summer salsa of capsicum and onion, smoky zucchini salad with pomegranate and sunflower seeds, and Spencer Gold potatoes tossed in herb pesto with a sprinkle of rock salt – paired with Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc, although Ted had a New Zealand Pilsner.

Lunch was followed by a small sweet: hand-rolled chocolate raspberry truffles. They were delicious dipped in my hot black coffee.

Before long, lest we get peckish or perish from lack pf constant feeding, we were given an afternoon platter with a duo of Käpiti cheeses – gouda and blue – paired with Pickle & Pie pickles from Otaki, fresh grapes and Wellington-baked crackers, paired with Scapegrace Gin, Soda & Yuzu.

Of course, there was dinner too. We won’t need to eat again for days (although, of course, we will). We were served horopito -crusted slow-roasted lamb shoulder with Gisborne navel orange and mint jus, served alongside charred corn, coriander and lime salad with feta and kumara, and a spinach and potato gratin, paired with Te Mata Syrah – the latter of which which I didn’t take. Enough is enough after all.

Dessert was not forgotten: poached apple and berry crumble with Käpiti ice cream and a drizzle of runny cream, paired with the same sparkling Hunters MiruMiru NV wine with which we had started our day.

We waddled our way off the train in Auckland.

Lest we forget that there was scenery as well as food, some of Ted’s photos of our journey:

We left Wellington and followed the Kāpiti coast.

Those are black swans in the water.
Plimmerton
Pukerua Bay
Our last glimpse of Pukerua Bay before breakfast.
Otaki, meaning “place of the staff,” is named after the Tohunga Haupipi-a-Nanaia, who, while chasing his eloped wife southward, struck his staff in the ground here..
Bunnythorpe was once home to a large dairy factory producing the ‘Glaxo’ brand of milk powder, the top-selling brand in the UK for many decades.
Mangaweka, meaning “stream of the weka,”
Part of the Ruahine Ranges, running 110 kilometres(65 mi) to Hawke’s Bay. Mangaweka, the highest peak, stands at 1,733 metres (5685 ft).
Travelling over the Makohine Viaduct, completed in 1902, the second oldest on the Main Trunk line. It stands 72 metres (236 ft) high and 229 metres (751ft) long, making it the 7th highest viaduct in New Zealand.
The viaduct spans the Makohine Stream, with native bush below and the Rangitikei River in the distance. The name Makohine comes from “ma” (stream) and “köhine” (girl).
The giant corrugated‑iron boot is Taihape’s proud emblem of its identity as the “Gumboot Capital of the World,” celebrating the town’s rural heritage and its famous annual Gumboot Day.
The engine of our short train as seen from the rear open viewing car.
The new Hapuawhenua Viaduct in Okahune, built in 1987 stands at 51 metres (167 ft) high and stretches 414 metres (1358ft) in length, and serves as a modern solution to crossing the river, while the nearby original steel viaduct (no photo) remains a heritage feature.

Our sunny clear blue skies changed to rain as we approached the Raurimu Spiral which took us down 218m/725ft in just 2km/1.25mi. from the National Park to reach the Volcanic Plateau. That’s a gradient of 1 over 50, meaning one meter of vertical rise for every 50 meters traveled horizontally.

Two views of our train rounding the Raurimu Spiral. (Photo credit for both goes to fellow passenger Curt Howdyshell)

There was a chart on the train showing what the Spiral looks like from above:

This hill Ted photographed at Te Kawa is a volcano. It’s part of the Te Kawa volcanic complex, a small extinct monogenetic cone in the Waikato region.

Toward the end of our journey we made a final stop in Hamilton, or Kirikiriroa, the largest urban area in the Waikato Region and the fourth largest city in New Zealand. There was nothing particularly photo-worthy either there or at our final destination: the Strand station in Auckland. I was actually surprised that our terminus was not a station building like Wellington’s (below), but simply a commuter train platform to a parking lot.

This morning’s departure point.

For the next 9 days we’re in Auckland at the Parkside Hotel & Apartments, which – while perfectly okay looking both inside and out – appears as night falls to be in a somewhat sketchy and loud neighbourhood. That matches comments in some very recent hotel reviews, but is very different from the reviews posted 6 months ago when I made our booking. The building’s air conditioning is currently being repaired, so windows open to the street noise are our only option.

We’re in close proximity to the Central Business District, but it is definitely not as quiet as the Quest Apartment Hotel where we spent our first few days in Auckland.

Maybe my strategy of wanting to compare different places wasn’t the best idea, but who was to know? On the up side, our room is huge and has a king-size bed, which the Quest did not.

For now, it’s off into that big comfy bed for, hopefully, a peaceful night’s sleep.

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