Train trip to Hamilton and back!

We took a 'birthday train trip' to Hamilton and spent the evening with Annelien and Carel - cake and birthday cards and dinner and happy birthday singing made for a special evening - Dankie die Bothas vir die rondry en oplaai en aflaai en saam rugby kyk en koek en sing en ete en geselskap ens! Ons waardeer julle ongelooflik baie!

Annelien and I were tickled by the 'slim' milk to have in our coffee while indulging in this marvellous cake! Oh well - every calorie helps I guess!

Pretty scenery not far from Palmerston North where we got onto the train for our day trip to Hamilton. The mountains in the distance and the fairly clear sky means that the outside temperature is cold enough to make us grateful for the heated train carriages.

We were informed by a fellow traveller that this scenery is 'nothing' - well we thought it was something enough to take a picture of!

There was a lunch time-ish stop for a bite to eat at the Station Cafe at Uhakune - a town which is one of the places to stay when you are skiing on Ruapehu mountain. I thought of you Janet when I saw the menu board - not as spectacular as the one you did overseas, but knew you would appreciate the beautiful printing as well as the 'chalk drawing' of the train.

The Overlander was at one point, going to be shut down, but has been retained and revamped to a degree. There are many train enthusiasts, especially those who are steam fanatics who apparently fought long and hard to keep the lines open and although it's not the Blue train or Rovos Rail by any means, the carriages are comfortable and well heated with a 'take away' buffet car to stave off any hunger pangs along the way.

Sunday morning arrival of the Overlander train at Hamilton station - from Auckland en route to Wellington.

The last carriage on the Overlander train has a scenic back window for photographs like this one. Passengers are requested not to spend more than about twenty minutes in these special seats, but I don't know how many folks actually take much notice of the rules!

This little town has a monument to sheep shearing - one of their residents has held the world sheep shearing title for more than a couple of years and shears something in the region of thirteen sheep in fifteen minutes!

Had we been asked to say which country in the world held the sheep shearing title we have to admit that we would have plumped for Australia so there you go - New Zealand has many surprises!

There are five viaducts between Palmerston North and Hamilton - this is one of the more spectacular of them .

Pretty scenery in spite of a rainy and grey day on the 1st August - we have been interested to see that lots of farmers own 'tonka toys' like the one in this picture. They are also used a whole lot by road construction contractors so we see them often and they never fail to raise a smile because they just look so dinky and cute - we are used to these kinds of vehicles being about ten times larger.

One sees the wintery mountains a lot closer from the train than from the road.

The section of railway line from Taihape to Feilding changes to steam every fortnight - this means that 80 passengers joined the train for that leg of the journey. Some of them had been waiting for a spot for two months! We particularly liked the gum boots on the front of this steam engine!

Thought you might like to see the snowscape now that it's done - apparently, this is the view from the hut where all the Wanganui folks stay when they go skiing. That volcano is evidently not dead!

The four folks trudging up the hill are the commissioners of the painting and their sons - making this a pretty personal painting!

Dis al!