We were stoked a few weeks ago to find a deal on grabaseat for Kingston Flyer train rides. We’ve been following the progress of the Kinston Flyer ever since our first journey to Queenstown where we turned off at Kinston to find a very sad and dusty looking train, which was looking for a new owner. I posted about the train initially on this very long blog post http://livinginnz.com/?p=72 (I have since learned to break my travels up into bite sized blog posts!)
Here it is, looking spick and span!
When we went to exchange our vouchers for tickets, we were warned that there was a fire near the track and the train might not run on time. It gave us a bit more time to order some lunch from the reopened cafe bar:
We ordered a few Paninis and chips and asked if we could eat on the train – which we could!
So we got our food. We found our seats on the train. First Class, fancy that! The seats were so comfortable, and could be turned either way so you could face other seats or just sit as a two.
Just being inside the train was lovely. Such detail in the interior.
Once the train was rolling away, you were free to wander up and down the train.
After a few minutes, the train stopped. Puzzled, we looked around. Then… the train started going backwards before stopping again. We were still puzzled when it moved on again. Then is stopped again.
Aha. Bucket of water was being carried down to the back of the train. The train had caused a little fire on the track. Fear not – there was a lady posted at the end of the train with a backpack full of water and a bucket, ready to extinguish any fire!
Can you see the flame?
Putting the fire out!
Ready for the next one!
As you can imagine, this made the journey a little more fun for us, although it is a very serious and problematic issue for the company running The Kingston Flyer – I’m sure they are working on how they can resolve this issue.
Another 5 minutes down the track and we passed the bush fire (unsure how it started). It was right by the track but had spread to a large area of bush. You could hear the crackling as you passed the fire and we saw the helicopter coming to extinguish the flames.
After a journey of about 30 minutes, we reached Fairlight where we stopped for 30 minutes and had opportunity to visit the little shop. To be fair, the shop had some great merchandise and we took advantage of this! Matthew bought a cap, badge and tshirt.
The train at Fairlight ready to go back to Kinston:
The local traffic on the way back:
On the way back we nabbed a PRIVATE carriage! Fancy! I think I got quite comfortable here.
It was easy to imagine when you were on the train, how it would have been to travel on it years back…
Mam also enjoyed the ride!
SO – if you get the chance to go on the Kingston Flyer – we recommend it!! And… Kinston itself is a very pretty place and a walk to the lake is well worth it:
The Fire Service filling up their vehicles with water:
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