Number of Images on this Page = 13
Bay Of Islands Vintage Railway
We first travelled to the Bay of Islands in 1994 (when I was still
taking slide photographs!), and came across this wonderful little
railway, running on the vestiges of the northernmost railway in
New Zealand. While we did not get a chance to travel on the
train, we did get a chance to take a few photographs of it, here
labelled as "Gabriel-1" through to "Gabriel-8".
We returned 22 years later, and were disappointed to discover that
the section of track to Opua had been removed, and assumed that
the railway was no longer functional. But no, a dedicated band of
volunteers has kept the railway running, even though all the
bridges on the line from Kawakawa to Opua had been condemned.
This meant that train trips could only run as far as the first
bridge, a fairly short trip!
Over the years, those bridges have steadily been recommissioned,
and trains now run to Taumarere (not sure how far this is). Full
credit to those hardworking volunteers!