On New Zealand’s South Island, scenic train tours offer up views of rugged landscape, wildlife and time to meet the locals.Dunedin NZ/Supplied
One minute, the historic train is clickedy-clacking through solid suburbia. Places with pleasant names like Saint Kilda and Saint Clair, where well-kept homes climb away from the rails on rolling hills. The next? After passing through a tunnel, we roll into a whole other reality. White sheep dotting steep, green meadows that remind me of the Scottish highlands. Cattle grazing up high on ridge lines. It’s like the track has delivered our rolling stock to the shire.
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Janet Tomes, the on-train interpreter, promises even wilder country as we enter the Taieri Gorge. And she says the scenic route includes 20 bridges and 10 tunnels.
I’m in Dunedin, deep down on the southeast coast of New Zealand’s South Island, a destination often overlooked – even by Kiwis.
More than a century ago, Dunedin was the wealthiest city in the country, courtesy of a major gold rush. It was first discovered in 1861, in a spot now known as Gabriel’s Gully, and eventually billions of dollars in gold was pulled from there and surrounding areas.
The boom left behind a legacy. The downtown streets are still lined with Victorian buildings, and the city is home to New Zealand’s first university.
The Dunedin train station was completed in 1906 in Flemish and Renaissance style and features a 37-metre clock tower.Hayden Parsons/Supplied
One of the loveliest buildings is the railway station. The oft-photographed structure was completed in 1906 in Flemish and Renaissance style. It’s all stained glass and mosaic floors, the exterior constructed from dark basalt, with pink granite pillars and copper-domed cupolas, complete with a 37-metre clock tower.
It’s a rather magnificent place to board a train, which I did on back-to-back days. First up? The Seasider, a 66-kilometre round journey to the northeast of Dunedin on a roughly 3½-hour route that traces the Pacific coastline. We pass coves filled with blue water and white sails, as well as a wildlife colony that’s home to both massive albatross and yellow-eyed penguins – thought to be one of the world’s rarest penguin species.
There’s a long tunnel through an extinct volcano, and we pass a massive spit of sand popular with surfers, as well as wetlands filled with black swans and oyster catchers, plus hopeful locals digging for clams.
This route offers an intriguing option: ride to the end of the line, or alight at a ramp in what appears to be the middle of nowhere. Descending the ramp and turning a corner, I find a bustling brewery. A three-piece combo plays easy tunes on the patio for people – most of whom seem to be locals – sipping the good stuff, made right on site.
While I enjoy my own frothy mug, I chat with the friendly, laid-back owner, Jono Walker. A builder by trade and originally a dedicated home brewer, he describes how he built Arc Brewing Company from a former gas station and mechanic shop.
The train’s brewery stop started as a one-time event, but was so popular that it’s now a daily option. Riders have about 90 minutes to sit and sip, before the train comes back. “The conductor is supposed to ring me when they’re returning, but he sometimes forgets,” he laughs. “Dunedin is a bit loose and wild.”
Riders on the Seasider have about 90 minutes to sit and sip at a brewery, before the train comes back to pick them up.Dunedin NZ/Supplied
The next day, I return to the station for Dunedin Railways’s signature five-hour, round-trip, into the Taieri Gorge. This journey, which rolls to the southwest of Dunedin, spirits us from a modern city into a very wild place – sheer cliffs, rushing water – in a very short amount of time. As promised, the scenery just gets more spectacular as the train’s vintage 1930s rail cars follow the bends of the river below.
Passing over a long viaduct feels like flying, in slow motion. At Deep Stream, we’re invited to take a short, guided walk across the bridge and once we’ve reached the other side photograph the train as it passes over.
The gorge narrows, and the sylvan meadows are replaced by sheer rock walls and mountains. The river froths below. Eventually we emerge into wide open country, rugged and vast and windswept, disembarking at historic Pukerangi Station.
Farmer families from the area have gathered here, selling everything from homemade candles and soaps to hand-painted tote bags. The work of one of the artists stands out, paintings that seem to truly capture the beauty of this place.
“I don’t know anywhere else in New Zealand that speaks to me like this. It’s got heart,” says artist Mary Ramsay, whose family farms 5,000 acres of beef and sheep. Her favourite painting? One that reveals how life up here can be cold, hard and isolated, but fulfilling, all at the same time. “It’s the view out of my dining room window on a winter’s morning.”
Soon, a toot calls us back to the train. We make our way down to the gorge, over the trestles and through the tunnels with the Victorian charms of Dunedin waiting at the end of the track.
If you go
Visitors on a road trip through the South Island will find Dunedin on the southeast coast, about five hours south of Christchurch and nearly four hours east of Queenstown. Regional flights land in Dunedin International Airport from larger hubs such as Auckland and Wellington.
Book your train trip either on Dunedin Railways website or in person at the station. The round-trip price for the five-hour Taieri Gorge route is NZ$169 ($135), while the 3½-hour Seasider is NZ$135.