Younger kids are bound to get a kick out of a rail ex+cursion, writes Alexia Santamaria.
The mark of a good excursion is always in the post-event phone call to the grandparents and, judging by this one, our trip to Whangaparaoa Narrow Gauge Railway was a resounding success. "Grandma, we went on a train... and fed chickens... and rabbits ... and went on a trampoline... and saw donkeys and a pig ... and played with toy trains ... and went in a treehut ... and drove pedal cars... and went on an owl hunt!" was the breathless account.
Whangaparaoa Narrow Gauge Railway is a paradise for young kids. But perhaps not in the form you'd imagine. It's certainly not flash. But it is good, old-fashioned ramshackle fun, created by a man who loved trains as much as life itself.
When you pull up outside it doesn't look like much and on the scale of Auckland's major attractions it's not enormous, but for littlies there's a lot to do inside those gates. The major drawcard, of course, is the train. Built by the now-deceased Ted Pointon, a true train enthusiast who worked as Glenbrook Vintage Railway's key mechanical person for many years, this train is a gorgeous little open-sided three-carriage number, which carries 12 people at a time. It does a 350m circuit: your entry fee gets you in the door to see everything and round the track three times. There are all the requisite tick-boxes of railway fun: a tunnel, a bridge and, usually, some people to wave at.
After we'd had our ride, we walked through the bush to the playground. The bush is not exactly expansive but to a three and six-year-old it was like the Heaphy Track. They were beyond excited when we went through "Owl Alley", a small loop path diverting slightly from the main track, dotted with over 20 owls made from terracotta, stone and wood and in all shapes and sizes. It doesn't get much better than going on an owl hunt in a "forest".
