VISITORS lining the Te Ara Tika rail overbridge watch the steam locomotive start to pull the 13 carriages out of Te Kūiti on Sunday night.
THE main street of Te Kūiti was packed to the rafters last Friday, and again on Sunday, as more than 1000 visitors were pulled into town via Glenbrook Vintage Railway and Steam Inc’s JA 1271 steam locomotive. A good percentage of Waitomo’s population was on hand to greet them, even if an hour later than the advertised time of 12.45pm. The train had been held up for an hour because of a combination of a snapped rail track and KiwiRail’s Te Huia travelling faster than it could. But the visitors were amazed at the reception received from the townsfolk – something they said they had not got from either of their two other stops. JOINT PROMOTION As part of the promotion of the district, a joint venture between Legendary Te Kūiti and the King Country News saw bags containing flyers, information about the town, tourism opportunities, the newspaper and a number of small gifts and sweets handed out, along with help on what to see and do in the hour they were in town. In addition, they were greeted with nearly 300 free sausages in a sausage sizzle, the ingredients for which had been donated by Te Kūiti New World, which many said simply “blew them away”. “Whoever said there was no such thing as a free lunch has never been to Te Kūiti,” one said. For all that, the food places in Te Kuiti that were still open at the belated arrival time of nearly 2pm did well, although Abi Rawles from Stoked said the Sunday visit, at 6pm, was better than Friday’s. “We had lots of lunch bookings from people on the train for Friday, but then because it was so late they didn’t have much time, so went elsewhere.” Appliance Plus proprietor Guy Whitaker said results from a retailer’s chat group showed it didn’t really affect the retailers. He said the goodie bags and the free sausage sizzle made people have ‘warm feelings” towards the town and he felt this was the real benefit for future visitor activity. ‘DELIGHTED’ WITH RESPONSE Janene New, chair of Legendary Te Kūiti and who was responsible for a big part of listening to those who had arrived as she and her team handed the bags out said she was “so glad” of the response to the town’s welcome. “I was delighted with the response – and particularly, in having our own eyes opened by people’s perceptions of things like the plaza space,” she said. “I was talking to one older gentleman who had left Te Kūiti about 40 years ago, and he said he was so impressed with the space that had been created around the plaza and the railway station. “And I thought, wow – that’s so nice to hear. We’ve sort of become used to it and taken it for granted, so it was nice to hear that kind of feedback.” She said the important thing for her was the ability to explain to people just how much could be seen in a 200-metre space – and the visitors loved it. “From the Japanese garden to the pavilion, the statues and everything else – and there were also locals I spoke with who weren’t aware of some of those things,” she said. ‘WE’LL BE BACK’ By far and away though was the “We’ll be back” response that came through loud and clear from the visitors. “That is an intangible that is priceless to us as a district,” she said. Tim Kerwin, manager of GVR said he was “blown away” at the reception Te Kūiti had given its passengers. “These excursions were kind of a one-off, a celebration of 50 years for both ourselves and Steam Inc, to whom this particular locomotive belongs. “It’s 50 years of friendship really and for us, given what we are from the heritage perspective, taking people to the towns that were so dominant in the early rail era such as Te Kūiti and Taumarunui made sense. “And the reception Te Kūiti gave the train was simply amazing.” Even he was surprised though, at the number of passengers who wanted to be part of the excursions in the first place. ALMOST 1000 PEOPLE “We pulled nearly 1000 people into Te Kūiti during the two days, which was certainly more than we expected,” he said. “And as I speak, there are only 18 seats left for the Raurimu Spiral trip [later in the month].” He said GVR intends to come down and speak to Legendary Te Kūiti and the Waitomo District Council about how excursions like this could be done perhaps on a biannual basis; it already runs a popular train down at the annual sheep muster event. Waitomo mayor John Robertson said while he wasn’t at the event, these kinds of things were always popular. He said he hoped a combination of work by the region’s mayors with KiwiRail could also see regular passenger trains once again stop in the towns of the King Country.
