This is an image of the Overlander's course. One of three main train trips in New Zealand this one connects Auckland, NZ's largest city, with the capitol, Wellington! I will be taking another train journey with this company on the South Island coming up soon here! This course took about 12 hours. New Zealand, though portrayed on Western map as incredibly small, is actually quite long, about as long as the East Coast of the United States, stretching about an amazing 1,000 miles! I traveled about 400 miles on this journey.
The train! It was actually really comfortable. Enough leg room, space to move around, etc. If only the windows weren't so reflective, most of my pictures have a little image of the camera in them. I apologize!
Beautiful fall colours. I will never get over that!
Lots of crazy rock formations. New Zealand really is a geologist's paradise.
A carved out river basin.
Mt. Ngauruhoe. This is one of two mountains used for Mordor and Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. These fields also were the location of much filming, including for Gandalf's ride through the snow, a battle with the Orks and Frodo's journey to Mordor. You could quite easily go on a LOTR tour of New Zealand!
Lots of beautiful grasslands. New Zealand has a quite diverse habitat--from grasslands and farm country to rainforest to glaciers!
Mt. Rupehu. Another site for LOTR filming. Just gorgeous with the snow on top!
Lots of winding rivers and grasslands throughout NZ. This is one of the plains regions.
There was a fabulous sunset coming into Auckland after a long 12 hours on the train. As long as it was though, it was a great trip! The clouds were just amazing at this point, having an almost iridescent mother-of-pearl sheen. Gorgeous.
Home at last! After 12 hours on the train and covering over 600 km it was time for bed!
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