Travelling by train is bloomin' good

PHIL REID/The Dominion Post

THERE FOR THE RIDE: Elizabeth McKenzie and Judith White are among 90 passengers on the The Dominion Post annual readers' tour that left Wellington yesterday for Rotorua and then the Far North.

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Elizabeth McKenzie far prefers the click-clack of rail to the stress of the road, and is happily surveying the countryside on The Dominion Post's annual readers' tour.

"It's been lovely. The kowhai have been in full bloom," she said from National Park, at the end of the first leg of the trip. Mrs McKenzie is a regular on the tour, now in its 18th year.

"It's a great way to meet people, and see what everyone's been up to," she said.

Her friend Judith White has been travelling by train since she went to Feilding from Wellington by herself at the tender age of five.

"That's what they used to do back then; someone would put you on the train and someone would take you off."

Both were among 90 passengers chugging through the North Island.

The train left Wellington yesterday, 90 minutes late and bound for Hamilton, the first overnight stop on the 13-day tour.

The tours were started by one of The Dominion Post's predecessors, The Evening Post.

Today, the group is on its way to a two-night stop in Rotorua, before heading for Auckland via Tauranga. The tour group then heads to the Far North, travelling by train, coach and launch while based at Waitangi for four nights.

The chartered train will go as far as Whangarei, the northern-most point for passenger travel on the rail system.

The return leg includes Auckland and two nights at the Chateau Tongariro, before arriving back in Wellington on November 10. The tour is led by Peter Kitchin, of The Dominion Post, with long-time operations chief John Ward.