Outings
Below is a brief report on our visit to the Kawakawa Vintage Railway Report by Margaret Westgate with photographs courtesy of Brian Hewitt.
On Tuesday 29 August, twenty seven Probus members braved the wind and rain to visit the Kawakawa railway station and take the vintage train operated by the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway Trust on its 3.5 km scenic route. The bus trip was very comfortable and morning tea was enjoyed in the cosy station rooms. After some of us visited the town, we all boarded the train. Unfortunately, we could only travel a shorter distance than usual due to the recent bad storm when several large branches and logs swept down the stream and damaged the piles of a bridge. We passed some interesting scenery. The highlight was the “Lava tree” - a large dead tree festooned with hanging toilet bowls, all painted and given topical names. We stopped just before the damaged bridge where one of our members, who shall remain nameless, escaped from the train to take a closer look and was duly reprimanded by the guard.
On arrival back at the station our tour guide, Dave Hewitt, showed us around the workshops where several locomotives were in various stages of rebuilding and repair. This formidable restoration of locomotives and carriages was being undertaken by an enthusiastic band of skilled volunteers, some of whom travel up every day from Whangarei.
A very pleasant lunch was had in a refurbished railway dining car where we enjoyed table service.
A big thank you to Anne, the organiser of this very enjoyable trip. We all would like to do it again when the rail bridge is repaired and we can travel further, although this may take a while due to bureaucracy and funding problems.
