Opinion: Train trips a joy

The new Northern Explorer train. Photo/file

I love a good train ride.

I suspect it has something to do with growing up in a small town with no train service - they were always a novelty.

As a kid, I was always excited when a train went past on car journeys and, as an adult, I still get a buzz from seeing a long line of carriages travelling alongside me.

When overseas, trains are my favourite way to get around. They're usually faster than driving through a city, they're convenient with regular schedules, plus you can see so much of the city and countryside from a comfortable carriage.

One of the best holidays I've had was taking the Northern Explorer and the Coastal Pacific trains from Auckland to Christchurch.

The scenery was incredible - starting off in densely-built Auckland, travelling through the wilderness of King Country, under the shadows of the central North Island mountains, ascending the Raurimu Spiral, crossing raging rivers over high and narrow bridges, trundling through small towns where kids would wave from the streets, weaving through hills covered in bright yellow gorse, following the beautiful Southern Alps crowned in snow.

The beauty of this journey was that so much of it can only be seen by train. Narrow train tracks can go where roads cannot.

It's a journey I'll never forget.

While convenient, a passenger train from Auckland to the Bay, through Hamilton, would not just be used by workers.

Tourists, both national and international, would happily pay to see the Waikato's rolling farmland, the beautiful edges of the Tauranga Harbour, and to travel through the Kaimai Tunnel, the country's longest tunnel at close to 9km long.

The costs involved in creating a viable passenger network connecting the Bay, Waikato and Auckland mean this idea isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

But this train enthusiast hopes it does happen one day.