International Railroad Discussion > Bye Bye New Zealand

So Far as I know trains never got to Queenstown, but the New Zealand Railways did, in the form of the TSS Earnslaw. It was built by the railway in 1912 and has been sailing Lake Wakatipu ever since. I wasn't sure about posting this, not being directly rail related, but the people on the International Board seem to be a fairly open minded lot. We did a dinner cruise on the ship. The buffet dinner is served off the ship at the Homestead Restaurant at Walter Peak and is very good. The entire affair takes about four hours.

The third photo is looking into the engine room. Although you naturally can not go down into the engine room you can stand and photograph from the grating just above.

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Not a train but it's steam.

The old railway logo.

Not the dinner cruise.

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Does the Kingston Flyer still run down on the south end of the Lake?

Rick

When I was there in 1978, the ship, along with Eichard's tavern on the waterfront, were great places to meet local lasses. Great to see it's still operating under steam.

According to Wikipedia the Flyer has not ran since 2012 and the entire operation is for sale.

When the Flyer was running, it terminated some distance from the lake in Kingston. In my view, it was the best and most authentic of all the preserved railways we visited on my 2006 trip.