Through Cloud and Snow

From Wellington Railway Station – “a symphony of towering columns, vaulted ceilings and marble terrazzo floors” – travelling by train north up the west coast “the track squeezes between wild, rocky shoreline and precipitous cliffs.” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Heather Ramsay travels on the Overlander toward the volcanic plateau and the ski town of Ohakune, crossing some 352 bridges and 10 “magnificent” viaducts. The line was opened in 1908, and once down off the Raurimu spiral, the train races “through a landscape of stark, spiky hills before bursting forth at Te Kuiti into the gently rolling dairy country of the Waikato region. Darkness has  fallen by the time we rumble into Auckland’s Britomart Transport Centre.” Ramsay reflects “that public transport has provided a fuss-free ride from the heritage ambience of Wellington to the modern face of Auckland – and a lot more in between.”