Ticket to ride

Did you know you can travel half the length of Aotearoa via the four linked routes of the Great Journeys of New Zealand, KiwiRail’s train and ferry tourism network? The Northern Explorer transports passengers down the Central Plateau from Auckland to Wellington, where you can catch the Interislander across the Cook Strait. From there, you can wind your way from Picton to Christchurch on the Coastal Pacific (reopening in December after damage to the lines during the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake), and then traverse the Southern Alps on the TranzAlpine, which connects Christchurch to Greymouth.

My husband and I have been gifted a trip on the TranzAlpine as a wedding present, and we’re treating it as a second honeymoon. It’s only a five-hour journey each way, but we’re making