Another early morning as we were heading to catch another train which would take us north to Hamilton, New Zealand. This train is called the Northern Explorer. The tourist ticket goes from Wellington to Auckland, but since we were stopping at Hamilton, we had to purchase our own tickets (or pay our travel agent $35 to book it for us. Travel agencies make their money from the tour companies, hotels, airlines, etc. which they use for their customers.) This became important as we tried to check in on this Friday morning.
I had printed out our confirmation along with our other travel information and tucked it into my file in my backpack. As we arrived at the train station, we handed it to the agent expecting to get our seat assignments and be on our way. She couldn't find us in the computer at all. What? However, unlike other places, she was going to make this work for us. She kept my confirmation and sent us to put our luggage in the baggage area tagged for Hamilton and gave us a hand written card to sit in the dining car. She said it was a full train, but they would make a space for us and let us know. We followed her instructions and sat in the dining area in seats with lots of leg room and open space in front of us. We weren't the only ones sent to the dining room as two other groups eventually joined us. I was concerned about putting our suitcases in the luggage car--what if they didn't have seats for us? I became even more worried when I pulled up the confirmation notice on my phone (we had left our original with the agent.). As I reviewed it, I discovered that I had accidently booked our tickets for FEBUARY 28 not March 28--both on Fridays. I was sure that we were going to be off the train. And since this train only goes this direction every other day, it was going to make a problem for the rest of our trip. Darn!
However, when the agent finally got back to us after the train was already going--she simply let us pay for the tickets and had us stay in our seats in the dining car. It was perfect. Quiet, lots of viewing area, and leg room. It was the perfect spot to watch the scenery as we traveled along. (And we checked our credit card and discovered no charge for the February tickets which were supposedly non refundable. No idea what happened or why, but it worked out in the end.)
A beautiful train station....
a bit of a drizzly day and our last views of the southern Pacific Ocean (called the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia).
Another couple also assigned to the dining car....notice the free space we have to enjoy the views.
That is our handwritten Reserved sign saying these were our seats.
There was a mixture of landscapes as we took this 8 hour train trip north. From the hill pasture lands filled with sheep....
the valley pasture and crop farms...
streams
and deep mountain gorges.
Our engine car as we made a turn in the mountains.
I found this description on a travel website of the journey--
“It's an epic 681 kilometre (423 mile) journey across the interior of the North Island, through every kind of scenery there is, from coastline to volcanoes to mountains, lush green farmland to thick New Zealand bush. It takes you the length of the historic North Island Main Trunk Railway, started in 1885 and completed in 1908, over feats of engineering such the Raurimu Spiral, Turangarere Horseshoe and Makatote Viaduct. It's one of the world's great railway journeys and one of my favourites, far more historically and economically significant than the branch line used by the TranzAlpine train on the South Island.”
That sums it up pretty well. Although the Raurimu Spiral was a great engineering feat at the time, to drive on it was not that exciting, but it was a smooth and fun ride nonetheless.
...until we came to a stop! It turned out that there was a problem with the track ahead and they were waiting for engineers to reach the spot and assess whether we had to wait for a repair or could proceed over the damaged area. We sat for over an hour. We waited so long that the cows in the nearby field came to check us out.
I took the opportunity to get a picture of the unusual pin and link system they had on the railway itself. The New Zealand Railway is narrower than standard tracks using a 1.04 meter rather than the more standard 1.5 m.
More cows came to check us out.
Since we were in the dining car and just waiting, we tried out ice cream bars. Yummy. New Zealand is known for their dairy products and this was an excellent example.
Fortunately, we had Wifi signal so we could keep the Carters updated on our situation since they were picking us up in Hamilton.
After about 1 1/2 hours, we were finally given permission to slowly drive forward over the damaged track and continue our journey north. Here are the engineers getting ready to fix the problem after we passed by.
Carters (Marcie and Kevin) met us at the train station with Subway sandwiches and chips and zipped us all to the Hamilton Institute Building for a get together with the senior missionaries serving in the New Zealand Hamilton Mission. What a treat. Two of the couples were leaving soon so this was their goodbye plus a couple had recently arrived (They pointed out that you could tell they were new because they couldn't pronounce the names of their wards yet. Māori words are tricky, for sure.) It was so fun to listen to each of them introduce themselves and share about their experiences and their connections with each other. The same experiences we have felt with senior missionaries both in Salt Lake and in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission......
And their Institute building was amazing! A couple of classrooms, a large gathering area with a kitchen, ping pong table, etc. However, I found out that they have to provide breakfast foods and a light lunch every day Monday through Friday plus some dinners for 5-80 people depending on the occasion. They also taught some classes along with the Institute staff. There was two full time couples serving there plus some service missionaries.
Gathering together...
And, we made some connections--this couple is neighbors and good friends with Sister and Elder Baird who served in the ABM with us.
This couple is related to Eric Wing, our Institute director in Arkansas. They are serving in the Hamilton Institute and she said that Eric tried to recruit them when he heard that they wanted to serve a CES mission. However, they were hoping for New Zealand since he had served here as a young man.
She had some fun things to share with us....we could relate. (The small caption reads "This meal ain't gonna nourish and strengthen itself.")
They have two large refrigerators in the kitchen. One for the students.....
...and one for the Institute (for the senior missionaries who are making meals for Institute.) We were always wishing for a dedicated refrigerator.
We got a view of the New Zealand Temple after we left the gathering at night. Beautiful spot on top of the hill on Temple View Street.
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