Southern steam train tour chugs on
A Kiwi tourism provider has created a new South Island steam train experience after Covid-19 crippled business with no cruise ships visiting Marlborough.
Pounamu Tourism Group, operator of the Marlborough Flyer steam train, has put together a range of tour options to explore the South Island on the ‘Great Southern Steam Train Tour’ from seven to 13 day options, departing from Wellington, Christchurch, Invercargill or Blenheim in April next year.
Director Paul Jackson said more than 10,000 cruise ship passengers journeyed on the Marlborough Flyer steam train between Picton and Blenheim last season, and adapting in a vastly changed Covid19 world would be pivotal for New Zealand businesses. With Kiwis unable to travel overseas on holidays this year, New Zealanders are being encouraged to explore their homeland and Jackson hoped they would take advantage of the opportunity.
‘‘This is really the only option for us at the moment because we don’t see cruise ships returning for a significant amount of time, certainly not on the basis they were operating pre-Covid. This is a real lifeline for us.’’
One of the tour itineraries is for passengers to spend the first week travelling the entire length of the South Island (from Marlborough, Kaikoura, Christchurch, Oamaru, Dunedin, and Invercargill), in vintage carriages hauled by the historic WW1 memorial steam locomotive Ab608 Passchendaele, (named in honour of the fallen soldiers at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917).
On reaching Invercargill, the group begins the traverse inland on luxury coaches to experience Te Anau, Milford Sound, Queenstown and Franz Josef, before the home stretch to Christchurch on the TranzAlpine via Arthur’s Pass.
The Ab608 Passchendaele was built at Christchurch’s Addington railway workshops in 1915 and is the first of the famed class of AB ‘Pacifics’ – probably the most successful and versatile locomotives to run on New Zealand railways.
Jackson said passengers would be in Christchurch for Anzac Day, which would be poignant given the train’s history. ‘‘It’s a working, breathing living piece of railway heritage, which is simply majestic as it thunders down the track,’’
The tours included food, accommodation at four-star properties, and other excursions. There are also seven and eight day tour options.