Taieri Gorge, Dunedin

Some photos of a rail trip west of Dunedin. Over four hours up the Taieri Gorge and back again on a historic rail line, starting at the amazing Dunedin Railway Station.

New Zealand's iconic Silver Fern. The top of the frond is green and the underneath is silver.
The spores are underneath as well.

One of the ten tunnels

A shared road and rail bridge, one of two in NZ.

The high plain at Pukerangi.

At Pukerangi the engine was transferred to the other end of the train to take us back to Dunedin.

One of the spectacular bridges.

Durango

Durango is a self-satisfied tourist and ski town that has retained the old buildings in its central streets (downtown) and is now a nationally registered historic town. And it makes the most of its assets- it's very pretty, diverse and lively, and full of tourists.

We went to see the steam trains and a great little museum at the Durango railway station - it's home to the famous Durango-Silverton Railroad steam train ride.

And we had dinner at Christina's where I took the plunge and ordered steak, and I can honestly say that it was the best I've ever had. Melt-in-your-mouth gorgeous. It was big, very big, as are all our meals here.

Trains, and more trains

Several people told us that if we were anywhere near York we should definitely go to the National Railway Museum. So off to the museum we went - it was free, but we had to pay an 'all day' fee to park the car. I'm glad we started in the morning because we were there most of the day. So the car park fee wasn't wasted :)

It's a huge collection, of trains and everything associated with trains and railways. They have a huge room full of  shelves loaded (in an orderly way) with models, signs, clocks, tools, seats, timetables etc etc. There was a big research library for the train fanatics. The children's playground was a joy for parents and grandparents as well as children. There was a viewing deck with an electronic timetable displayed so that we could see the real trains going past. We could see the Flying Scotsman in pieces in the (very clean) workshop, undergoing a complete restoration.

We saw a replica of Stephenson's Rocket, and dozens of other trains of various ages including royal trains. There were a lot of people around but in such a big space that wasn't a problem. I'm glad we went but I think I've seen enough trains now.