Taieri Gorge Railway — Local services in South Island

Out of all the destinations we visited on our New Zealand/Australia cruise, we opted to buy this excursion. It was listed as one of the most popular. We were not disappointed.

For the ship excursion, the train is actually not far from the boat as the rail comes onto the shipyard. You will be directed to go to the left as far down as you can go to arrive at the last car. It appears they can accommodate up to 20 per car. As a tip, I suggest being in the first 20 to go to the caboose because it has retained its old-time interior. As an added bonus, you can take pictures from the end of the caboose. If you're not on a ship cruise, you can take the tour at the Dunedin Railway Station.

The car attendants are all volunteers from the Otago Excursion Train Trust. They are wonderful and very generous with their time and knowledge of the area as well as the Dunedin Railways.

For the cruise ship guests, this excursion package has meals included so be prepared to eat well. If you are not part of a cruise ship excursion, they do have snacks and drinks avaiable for sale. You will be given a "journey guide" of the train route which will include the menu and the prices. Don't worry about souvenirs, there is a gentleman who will come through the cars selling them: postcards, train whistles, key chains, caps--the usual souvenir fare. Prices can also be found in the journey guide.

You don't have to worry about which side has the best views, but if you want to see a deep ravine and a fault line, sit on the right side of the train or the side which you climbed onto the train. The ravine is after Hindon either Deep Stream or Flat Stream.

Our particular excursion ended at Pukerangi. We had a 20 minute stop where we can get out and look around, stretch our legs, and look at the local vendors who have set up tables to sell their wares (New Zealand wool, scarves, tea towels, jewelry, etc.) This is also the time to use the restrooms. There are two outhouses located behind a couple of trees away from the small train station. You can also use the restroom in the train cars as the outhouses tend to have a lineup.

On the way back, we were served lunch and plenty of wine to drink (sauvignon blanc and reisling). They also have other drinks of course.

This was a very enjoyable trip. We happened to sit next to a group of Québécois (French-Canadians) so we talked and got a long with them as my partner is also Québécois and I speak French. So enjoy this excursion and share your joy with your fellow travellers as well as the volunteers. A special shout out to George and Gaylene who served our car for our excursion.

As an added suggestion for fellow cruise ship travelers, on the way back you will be given another 20 minutes at the Dunedin Railway Station before heading back to the ship. Take more photos at the railway station and don't bother with the free wifi. There will be free wifi when you get back to the shipyard. Instead of going back to the ship, take a left as if you were going to leave the port. You will enter this building where they have set up an iSite center. There they will have free wifi. You will need to enter a password which they publicly post. This is the time to catch up on social media or upload your photos. There are public restrooms in...

I have been on this trip ,many many times over the past 20+ years and the scenery never gets old. The trip to Pukerangi and back takes roughly 4 hours though it took us closer to 4 and a half because we had to wait for one of the cruise ship trains to pass.

The commentary was informative and humorous. I have rated this only 4 stars for one reason. When I went with my 4 year old daughter to purchase some food and drinks we were told that they had new machines but the eftpos hadn't been set up yet. While this is probably not their fault I would have been good to have known beforehand so I could have got some cash out to take on the trip. Needless to say, after four and a half hours we were both starving and very thirsty. Perhaps they should have had complimentary water?

All in all it was still a great trip with views on both sides of the train. The Taieri River begins on the left but changes over to the right side around Hyde I believe it is. I will no doubt go on...

Nice railway journey up the Tairri Gorge on the Dunedin Railway. Great scenery, nice comfortable carriage and great commentary on what we saw. A box ‘lunch ‘ was provided plus water. Coffee etc available on the train for an additional charge. Maybe even better if they’d had more local South Island NZ produce in the lunch ( Ocho Chocolates, cheese etc - just a thought. ). Train left Dunedin station just after 10:00 and returned 13:30 with a stop of about 30 Loved this local NZ Chocolate factory in Dunedin. We did the tour which was great - learned a lot about producing good chocolate and the Pacific Island beans they use. Also great tasting where we were able to compare their own chocolates against commercially produced versions. Very small scale production but very focused on doing the...