Taieri and Toroa

The Taieri Gorge Railway runs from the lovely Edwardian station in Dunedin for 58 kms inland to Pukerangi, rising all the way. Built over 42 years, the line originally ran up to Cromwell, in the heart of the Central Otago region.

By the late 1870's the gold rushes in Otago were well past, and attention was being focussed on the agricultural potential on Dunedin's hinterland, roads being notoriously bad, railways were seen to offer the best means of improving transport and communications.
While the first section of the line opened in 1889, economic depression and wars delayed the finishing of the line until 1921, but despite it's late arrival the line played a major part in the development of the region.
Many tons of farm produce and hundreds of thousands of head of livestock were moved annually down to Dunedin for onward carriage to other parts of NZ and export.
The scenery along the way is spectacular,, with many of the views being totally inaccessible in any other way. We took over 100 photos as we travelled, each bend in the line gave us fresh lovely views of the gorge.

After making it's way south to Wingatui, the train leaves the main north south coastal line and starts to winds it's way up to the gorge, following the Taieri river all the way. Through no less than twelve tunnels, one almost a mile long, the train struggles at times to pull us up the steep gradients, as we rise over 250mtrs. There are numerous viaducts on the way, mainly wrought iron, the Wingatui viaduct is almost 200mtrs long and 50mtrs high spanning the Mullocky stream.




There are so many wonderful views that it is difficult to choose the best, I shall include a few more at the end.

Later we drove some 30kms to Taiaroa head, a long peninsula which forms part of the harbour mouth for Dunedin. We had not seen any Albatross on our travels, and this was our opportunity to see these magnificent birds close to on the headland. Known as Toroa in Maori, the Royal Albatross is one of about eight different Albatross which circle the earth around Antarctica. With a wingspan of over 3mtrs, (ten feet) it uses the wind and thermals to travel up to 1500 kms each day, at up to 120kph (75mph). Spending two-thirds of their life at sea, they come ashore only to breed, and we were privileged to see a few of them, one with a chick, through a viewing window in the nature reserve.As we watched, a ranger came over the hill and approached the nearest nest, and gently took a day old chick from under the mother Albatross. He weighed the infant, and replaced the chick soon after checking it over. Despite many attempts, it was impossible to focus my camera on the birds in flight, they move so fast and were some way away. Hopefully we will get the opportunity again.

The headland has been used as a fort for many years, indeed from 1885. In 1889 an Armstrong Disappearing Gun was installed, made in Newcastle on Tyne, and of course Armstrong has a connection with the borders. It is a six inch, breech loading gun of a hydro-pneumatic carriage, and was aimed and loaded underground, before being lifted for firing. It returned for reloading by the recoil, and could be fired once a minute. It has been perfectly restored, and still works, although it has never been fired in anger it has been tested hundreds of times over the years.