by train, again

on friday james and i caught the ferry to picton, expored the picton aquarium, and in the afternoon we took the train down to kaikora. we spent a few wonderful days with my good friend, Mariann, and her family. while we where away we went diving for crayfish and paua, collected cockles for dinner, ate iceceam, learnt some excellect new card games and a lot of chips, played on slides and swings, fed the chickens, and ran around being monsters.

on a monday afternoon

we travelled by train to Waikanae. i'd never been up to Waikanae before so we also added in a few stops along the way.

somewhere along the way

our late afternoon lunch in Waikanae

i love that the train ride was the activity for the day and my favorite stop was in Paekakariki. We had hot coffee, hunted for secondhand books and enjoyed a refreshing (read: chilly) walk along the waterfront. i even got in a nap on the way home. nice.

perspective

His father looked from the horizon to explain that trains got smaller and smaller as they moved away, and that to accommodate them the rails did the same. Otherwise there would be derailments.

from The child in time by Ian McEwan

by train

over the christmas holiday i travelled by train to christchurch. and later home again to wellington.

i think there is something beautiful about taking the train. it's quiet and noisey all at once. sometimes i slept as the train rattled along. i read, daydreamed and listened to the rain. i like to be alone and still surrounded by people and the landscape.

He walked across the length of every carriage looking for the most secluded seat. A disruptive minority of humankind regarded journeys, even short ones, as the occasion for pleasant encounters. There were people ready to inflict intimacies on strangers. Such travellers were to be avoided if you belonged to the majority for whom a journey was the occasion for silence, reflection, daydream. The requirements were simple: an unobstructed view of a changing landscape, however dull, and freedom from the breath of other passengers, their body warmth, sandwiches and limbs.


from The child in time by Ian McEwan