June 23, 2023
. . . and don’t spare the horses. Well that was the saying in our household back in the day. And heading home it was for us yesterday, another long day on the train. I was less compelled to take photos from the train window on this trip. In fact, even though I did enjoy the chance to sit and blob and not be walking, I also had a sneaky thought at times of how much quicker we’d be home if we’d flown.
Our luck with the weather held. Even though it had rained overnight, it was fine for our early morning walk to the Strand station. There were hardly any passengers a week ago on the train up to Auckland, but it was a full train for the return trip yesterday. Still, the train absorbed everyone easily, and it was a comfortable trip. The fitbit didn’t congratulate me, though. Not a lot of steps logged yesterday, but the knees were happy with that.
One photo from the trip for you — crossing the viaduct over the (I think) Rangitikei River, north of Feilding — speaking of which, back in the seventies we lived in Feilding, in a rental, the manse of the Apostolic Church. It was almost impossible to find rental accommodation in the town back then, and, as a female teacher, I wasn’t eligible for a school house with subsidised rent. It didn’t matter that, at the time, I was the ‘bread winner’ for our family — according to Department of Education rules, only men qualified as ‘breadwinners’ and thus only men were eligible for school housing. So it was lucky there was no pastor for the church at that time, and we were able to rent. I was reminded of this on the trip up and back because this house was, and is, facing the main trunk line, so we were able to check it out as we whizzed by. As with most every thing these days, it was both vastly changed but, strangely, much the same.
Enough of the past. Because I have only the one photo from the train ride home (Rangitikei River), I’ve included two photos from the Robin Morrison exhibition that I didn’t the post that day. I could included a heap more — there are so many wonderful photos, especially of Otago. If you get the chance to see any of his work, do so. His photography is the best.
Off Highway One 