28-03-2025
New Zealand's greatest rail journey deserves a spot on your bucket list
What is it about train journeys that, at their best, make them the undisputed champions of relaxed travel? I am thinking of train travel as it should be: comfortable seats, huge windows to enjoy the views, charming staff, delicious food and drinks served at white-clothed tables, and all the luggage securely tucked away in the baggage car.
Plus, of course, an open-sided viewing platform for taking pictures without reflective glass or just for breathing in the clean air and enjoying the scenery. You might assume I'm thinking of Canada's Rocky Mountaineer here – which has, of course, a well-deserved place on many a bucket list. In this instance, though, it's the other side of the planet I have in mind.
New Zealand has three principal train lines that, between them, cover much of the country from north to south; the Northern Explorer, the Coastal Pacific Scenic Train and the TranzAlpine Scenic Train. Each of these have been combined by Great Journeys New Zealand into a two- to three-week trip that seamlessly covers the country's considerable length.
The staff on board not only offer an unceasing supply of fine dining, they also point out historical sights, any particularly staggering landscapes (there are many), relate myths and offer occasional Maori blessings, too.
There is also an app, so you can follow your journey on the map along with a detailed commentary. This means you're given fair warning to get to the viewing car to snap, say, a series of viaducts across a river hundreds of feet below.
This is not a one-off. The train reveals an ever-changing tapestry of forests and farmsteads; sheep and escarpments; mountains and glaciers; kaleidoscopes of butterflies; cliff sides dense with tree ferns; wetlands and marshes; volcanic cones and the surreal sight of steam rising in billows from the earth. It's a photographer's dream.
Within half an hour of leaving Auckland by train, you begin, in fact, to get a feel for the place. New Zealand is slightly bigger than the UK but its population is just five million and it's a land that's empty and spotless. There's no litter, barely any graffiti, and every lawn is neatly mown. The vineyards are so tended that the vines resemble topiary. The dairy cattle snoozing in the late summer sunshine have surely been arranged in perfect compositions.
Even the air is pristine: New Zealand is in Roaring Forties (strong westerly winds) territory – the only other snippets of land that share this southerly latitude are in Patagonia and South Africa. As a result, the winds blow across untouched ocean and the air is crystal clear and clean (though the lack of pollution also results in a particularly fierce sun; factor 50 is recommended).
You don't spend the whole time on the train, of course – the rail network is extensive but not exhaustive – so the pattern for this trip means the train does the heavy lifting in getting you to a series of the country's most congenial towns and cities, where you stay for a night or two and explore. I was travelling as part of a small group of eight, plus our delightful escort, Maria, who arranged all the practicalities, hotels and off-train trips.
In Hamilton, for instance, we visited the gardens; Raglan harbour for a sunset cruise and a walk along black volcanic sands; the majestic glow worm grottos of Otorohanga; and Sanctuary Mountain – a fenced, predator-free area where endangered, often flightless birds watch you with as much interest as you watch them. They need the protection: their numbers have plummeted and are only just starting to come back.
In 1770, before the introduction of predatory land mammals (everything from cats to weasels) to these islands, Captain Cook's botanist John Banks recorded in his diary that the dawn chorus that woke him each morning in Queen Charlotte Sound was the most melodious wild music he had ever heard, almost as if the birds were imitating small bells. In the forest here you can hear it still.
While there are arranged group trips, you can often explore on your own. After Hamilton, we headed to Rotorua and had a free day. I decided to visit Te Puai; with its boiling mud and spouting geysers it is the hub of New Zealand's geo-thermal activity as well as one of its main centres for Maori culture.
The next day, we all met up again to take the train to the capital, Wellington. With its steep streets and pretty painted wooden Victorian houses, it's sometimes compared to San Francisco – but this would underestimate the inventiveness of the Wellingtonians, who have built their homes on vertiginous plots that can only be reached by privately run funiculars (some 500 of them).
While this is a trip that is focused chiefly on the train, it embraces just about every other kind of transport along the way, too: buses and taxis, jet boats and catamarans and, to reach the South Island and the pretty town of Picton (gateway to the Marlborough vineyards), the Interislander Ferry. The vineyards here offer not just tastings but outdoor lunches where you can bask in the same February sun as the surrounding grapes, approaching ripeness at the end of the New Zealand summer.
South Island's Coastal Pacific train, meanwhile, runs close to the rugged shoreline past cliffs, grassy dunes, rocky bays, a turquoise sea and endless empty beaches.
We stopped in Kaikoura for the whale watching – this is one of the few places you can see sperm whales so close to land, as the deep underwater canyons here are home to their preferred food: giant squid. Two whales appeared and obligingly dove, flipping their tails magnificently.
It was wonderful but wet (New Zealand's rain can be unusually penetrating), so all the more pleasant to be back on the train with a constant flow of meals (tea, dinner, dessert) and general cosseting. I was in P coach and I wondered idly whether, given the ambience, this stood for Pullman. Actually, it's simply the Plus in Scenic Plus.
At the end of the line is Christchurch, a city still rising from the ruins of its devastating earthquake 14 years ago and now boasting a variety of handsome new buildings. The place was en fête on the sunny Saturday I was there (the rain disappearing as suddenly as it had arrived). Throngs of people were going to a rock concert in the park, while others were being punted down the River Avon by chaps in Edwardian dress – the NZ culture typically catering for all tastes.
As we journeyed across to the west coast over the next couple of days, there were many memorable moments: a walk to a glacier, an aerial treetop adventure some 65ft above the ground, a jet boat through the mighty Haast River Valley and a cruise through the fjords of Milford Sound.
But the very best had been saved for last – the TranzAlpine train. On its journey to Greymouth, we gazed out on some of the most staggering scenery New Zealand has to offer. Accompanied by all that onboard degustation (two breakfasts – cold then hot – morning tea and lunch), I could only hope that gasping in wonder makes an effective calorie-burning technique.
Essentials
Great Journeys New Zealand offers the 17-day New Zealand Up Close Signature Tour from NZ$14,999 (£6,630) per person, including all hotels, travel, tours and excursions, Scenic Plus dining on the trains and many other meals including daily breakfast. Various tours depart from Auckland between September and April. It is also possible to book specific sections of the tour.
