Scenic Rail Journeys

Travelling by train from Wellington to London, BBC journalist Robert Greenall writes that “there are still plenty of good reasons to go by train.” “The joy of ‘slow travel’ is that you see how the landscape changes — plus, you avoid the enormous carbon emissions that flying entails. In New Zealand and Australia, a journey by long-distance train is something like a tour bus, with quirky announcements along the way and even stops for sightseeing. New Zealand’s long-distance trains are infrequent, and often slow. There are just three trains per week in winter between the two main cities, Wellington and Auckland. That said, it’s one of the world’s great scenic journeys, with views on a good day over the Volcanic Plateau, one of the dramatic locations used in the Lord of the Rings films.”