\nHere’s the train near Blacks Beach, just short of our final destination of Beach Loop.<\/p>\n
On the last Saturday of September I went on a train trip from Napier to just south of Gisborne and back, an all day trip. This line has been closed to passengers for many years and runs only a couple of freight trains a day during the week. It is one of the classic New Zealand rail routes with serious ascents and descents, many tunnels and big viaducts. It took a long time to build and a lot of people died in the process, mainly in one flash flood. With such little traffic it could close any time, so worth a day whilst the opportunity is still there. The trip was run by Steam Incorporated who maintain the only mainline certified, fully restored steam locomotives and rolling stock in New Zealand. This one wasn’t steam, but did use their restored steel and older wooden carriages. Whoa, sounding like a trainspotter there – I was in it for the scenery and a bit of history.<\/p>\n
\nHere’s the train near Blacks Beach, just short of our final destination of Beach Loop.<\/p>\n
Leaving Napier the track skirts the residential back yards and out over the bridge across the lagoon at Pandora. Once out of Napier we pass the airport and through Bayview to the Esk Valley. From there it is a long, steep climb through a few tunnels and with vertigo-inducing drops alongside the Esk into the ranges to Waikoau. From here the line levels out and heads across the plateau across three huge viaducts, the Waikoau, Matahourua and Mohaka before dropping down to Wairoa.<\/p>\n
\nSome people jumped off at Wairoa to watch rowing on the Wairoa River.<\/p>\n
Onward to ‘Beach Loop’, the final passing loop just shy of Gisborne. We cut across the Mahia Peninsula, past the old fishing harbour of Waikokopu before climbing up and past the Kopuawhara Stream, the site of a disaster where 21 people died in 1938 during a flash flood whilst the railway was being built. Next through the 3km Tikiwhata Tunnel and a couple of shorter tunnels before we stopped for a picnic stop just short of Beach Loop.<\/p>\n
\nThe train heads off to Beach Loop to swap ends.<\/p>\n
\nThe Beach Loop beach.<\/p>\n
On the return leg I secured a good vantage point on one of the open balconies at the end of one of the old carriages to take some photos. <\/p>\n
\nTypical New Zealand bush from a little viaduct.<\/p>\n
\nA Tree Fern, or Ponga Tree with a bit of New Zealand behind.<\/p>\n
\nThe mighty Mohaka River and gorge.<\/p>\n
\nApproaching the Mohaka Viaduct, the biggest in New Zealand at nearly 300m long and 97m above the Mohaka River.<\/p>\n
All in all, a great day out. Perfect Hawkes Bay weather with not a cloud in the sky, fantastic scenery and a bit of history to boot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the last Saturday of September I went on a train trip from Napier to just south of Gisborne and back, an all day trip. This line has been closed to passengers for many years and runs only a couple of freight trains a day during the week. It is one of the classic New … Continue reading “The Kopuawhara Express”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-me","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.erikbloodaxe.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}