Awakeri Rail Adventures — Attraction in Bay of Plenty

We had done the pedal powered Vélo-Rail, in Commequiers in France the year before so were curious to try Awakeri Rail Adventures whilst camping at the DOC Matata campsite.

You pay for adults and kids are free.

The “carriages” are old golf carts attached to railway width wheels powered by dinosaur juice engines. Each takes 2-4 people but additional kids can be towed along in a trailer carriage. The track is about 20km return.

There were 4 stops - feeding chickens, walking through a bit of native forest to see a fence with hundreds of gumboots with jokes written on them, then a stop at a hut for a cup of milo/tea/coffee and the loo. The final stop was the end of the line turntable - the passengers helped out with shunting the carriages.

It was enjoyable for the kids and adults. I would have liked to hear information on the history/dramas of setting up the railway and the engineering involved, but we got none of that. The bad jokes about Germans and Black Americans were pretty tedious. How about some jokes about kiwis, the local region and historical/technical info about the railway instead - would have been better in my opinion.

I preferred the ride in France as it was more physically challenging. The entertainment made up for some of that on Awakeri, but could be...

Firstly, our 5 year old had a great time. He loves trains. However our guide Paul was extremely unprofessional and I could not recommend this experience to anyone. He however asked all the woman (just the woman) at the end of the tour to write a review.

The rail journey itself was uneventful and boring but it was Pauls constant chatter that thoroughly soured our experience.

You did get to feed chickens, but children were not allowed to hold the buckets. This would have been a fun activity for our 5 year old but his stories of chickens jumping up them scared him too much to go near the chickens and roosters.

We spent far too long at the campsite, forced to listen to his American propaganda and his racist and misogynistic jokes while being given a single coffee and biscuit, our 5 year old was told to put his hand up but Paul just can't count.

It is not that we were offended, we just did not enjoy anything that came out of Pauls mouth by that point.

By the end of the trip I like all the locals think Paul is a bit of a silly goose.

Do not recommend, but our 5 year old had a fun time. He...

After booking and paying the night before, Paul had not checked the bookings and was unprepared for us. Lucky there was a cancellation and a no-show, so it was no problem for us to get in on the trip. Paul has a great sense of humour and kept us entertained while we went off the rails (not literally) in the beautiful bush reserve. We commend his efforts in protecting the native Bush block in his own time and at his own cost. The rail cars were easy to use and well maintained and with pedal to the metal (or the limiter) we managed to get to 24 kph on the return trip according to my GPS. Luckily its a single track return trip so if you get stuck behind a slow person on the way in, you will be in front of them on the way back after the carts are flipped around on the turntable. Overall, it was a great way to spend about three hours in an interesting area doing an...