At the beginning of the rail trip we met up with our 85 fellow travellers in the lovely tiled Dunedin Station. It didn’t bode well when there was a 1/2 hour delay as the compressor in the Railcar had failed! 3/4 hour later out of Dunedin it failed again - some two hours later we chugged onwards aided by a Dunedin engine that came out and pushed us to a point where we had another engine come out and pull us to the next province where another engine had to take over to advance us to our destination!
Our fellow passengers were a grey haired lot who mostly walked at - minus 2kph!
Three good things:
1. Lots of laughter in the carriage making jokes until they got a bit less than patient.
2. One really annoying thing about taking photos is that all our friends think I’m going to post these photos on FB! … and they are really anti! I just don’t do this but FB has caused this problem by the willy nilly postings from everyone on FB.
3. If I didn’t use FB I wouldn’t have a clue what our rather large family was doing and saying!
Nice portrayal of this iconic station. I minimally use FB; not to post, but to see photos of my far-flung family and friends. I do use Flickr to put up photos from major trips; e.g. our trip to New Zealand and Australia in March 2013
I agree with you on #3 good thing.......it's a must when you have family all over! Funny how some folks are frightened of FB....you do not need to lots of friends you hard,y know.......you have to be discerning! A bad start but all good fun & a tale to tell!
@happypat They don't understand how the privacy settings work, Pat. They invariably believe that when you post something, the whole world can view it! Im typing this on the train at the moment using my iPhone to connect to the internet!
@maggiemae How modern you are......speaking to the world whist travelling across South Island NZ! That is exactly what anyone who doesn't get FB thinks.......it's a great form of modern day communication if you use it right. Saying that I have had to unfollow one of my 'friends' today.......couldn't stand anymore of his silly posts! Hope you are having a lovely lunch on that train in a while? I'm off to bed!
What a beautiful station, and what a great pov, fav. Glad you arrived safely. Somehow, your story put "Murder on the Orient Express" into my mind. Glad no one was driven to those lengths on your trip!
I don't think people understand that phones are actually a lot more open to problems and security issues than FB - they are scared of FB but put things on the cloud and do everything on their phones.
@jgpittenger Its the first trip that this Company have put on and good for them! We won't dwell on the small difficulties - including the ones you haven't heard of!
@taffy
The train stations get more countrified as we go on - some we have to wait for 2 hours - in the rain - but the surrounding magnificent mountains make up for it!
@taffy thanks Taffy for your good wishes! I don't think we are going to get a "Murder on the Orient Express" story here but there are some good stories developing!
What a beautiful station and great pov!! Happy travels - I hope they sort the engine out for you otherwise there could be some unhappy people on board!!
Your trip is starting out with quite a bit of delay. wonder what else can go wrong. good thing is your 're all in the same boat so to speak. how many days is your trip and do you know all the people who're partaking in this adventure? have fun! fav for sharing this beautiful station with us.
gorgeous decor of that station. sorry to hear about the compressor problems. fb sucks and i rarely ever log on to it anymore, except to see what the grandsons in calgary are up to. i hear you on people getting antsy about you posting photos of them that you take. it's the same here with the people i know. hope you enjoy your trip despite the few set backs. i'm off to a road trip next week, too!
This is a great shot, Maggie. Nice perspective. It looks like a lovely station. Sounds like your adventure started off with an adventure in itself! I know someone who anti-FB, but I still use it myself. It helps me keep in touch with friends far and wide. I only have a few 365 friends as friends there, though. I don't have quite as large a family as you and I only have 3 from 365 on FB.
I agree with you on no.3.
The train stations get more countrified as we go on - some we have to wait for 2 hours - in the rain - but the surrounding magnificent mountains make up for it!