Join the Readers’ Rail Tour
The Dominion Post Readers’ Rail Tour is back for another year.
Now in its 28th year, the tour will take place over 14 days in October.
It will venture north to Whanganui, National Park and Hamilton, and later from Napier, Palmerston North and back to Wellington via Wairarapa.
Combining both rail travel and coach, day-to-day activities will include exploring the Art Deco history of Napier, lunch on Lake Rotorua aboard the Lakeland Queen, and a banquet at Hobbiton.
Lower Hutt woman Stella has been on tours all around the country and has enjoyed them all.
She says the company is a highlight and she has made lifelong friends. Now she and a friend who met on a tour do them together.
‘‘The thing was you go into the hotel and you go in your room, and you know you can go down to the bar and have a drink and there’ll be somebody you can sit with. You’re not on your own.’’
Stella was attracted to the tour originally as a train enthusiast, and says it’s a great way to see the country. ‘‘There’s no two ways about that, and you’re not shut up in a bus all day.’’
Her favourite memories include a helicopter ride to the top of Franz Joseph Glacier, staying in the Hermitage Hotel at Mt Cook, and taking part in a gumboot throwing competition in the middle of the road in Whangamomona.
‘‘I always feel if you’re there, and it’s safe and everything, you’ve got to do it,’’ she says.
She also enjoyed travelling on the Napier to Gisborne rail line before its closure in 2012.
‘‘I was so grateful to go on that because the road goes inland but the train goes around the coast.’’
The tour package offers an allinclusive tariff covering transfers, accommodation, activities, dinner and cooked breakfast daily and off-rail lunches. Coaches will meet the train at each stop, ready to transport travellers to sights and hotels.
The 2017 tour runs October 15-28. For more information visit dompost.co.nz/ readerstour.