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TRAVELLERKeeping trackKathryn Webster joins a special New Zealand rail expeditionSOUTH OF PICTON thetrain follows the ruggedcoast, through tunnelsdug through rock face,past basic cribs plonkedbetween the tracks and the sea.It’s a moody view – shabby, kelpy,with grey-black jagged rocks andbrown-black smooth rocks that movesuddenly in fright and become seals.I’m on an excursion. My luckyfellow passengers are taking twoweeks to see New Zealand fromanother angle; I am having a tasteof it for just three days.We shift off through grape country,through Blenheim, through steepfarm land. Lambs push at theirmothers, their tails flat out like pumphandles. Wild cattle rush away fromthe tracks. Farm dam surfaces shakewith rising ducks, swans and thereflections of circling hawks.In Kaikoura we stop for a walkabove the boulder beach and thenfile back on board for a packed lunch.Comfortable food, nothing flash –sandwiches and muffins, tea from thepot. The train falls quiet after lunch:there may be some snoozing going on.But there’s such a riot of colour outthe train window, I can’t possiblysleep. Shockingly bright yellow hills,woolly with broom blossom, almostshout. Providing light relief, willowyriver banks are sliced through withpale, silvery water.Then we leave the coast. I knowit’s still there, but out of view, past thebroom-covered hills. The train speedsup. The land changes from wild totame to smooth sheep farm country,velvety with boxy trimmed hedgesand macrocarpa.“Train travel is verycalming and relaxing.You can just be; youjust go. There are nodecisions to make…“Train travel is very calming andrelaxing. You can just be; you just go.There are no decisions to make, noworries to consider, no stress to carry.It’s a convivial mood on board, with itsmix of couples and people travellingalone, looking for adventure infamiliar territory, keen to have theirown country revealed without theeffort of driving it. And they makefriends, as I do, over dinner inChristchurch.I hear about the trip so far –the highlights of the Auckland toWellington leg, the morning inthe Capital, the rocky Cook Straitcrossing and the relief of sliding intothe Sounds. Everyone’s amped aboutthe days ahead of zig-zagging downthe island from coast to coast, by railas much as possible.Leaving Christchurch, the snowtoppedmountains are brightagainst a flat blue-sky background.The train passes fuzzy horses andhealthy, happy cattle, then climbsPHOTOGRAPHY: KATHRYN WEBSTER60 AA Directions Winter 2013