A good summer excursion

About now most people in NZ will either be on their summer holiday or planning to embark on it.

For those heading into the Wairarapa region, the Rimutaka Incline Walkway, as it is officially known, is a good day's excursion through hills and bushland. It can be accessed at either the Kaitoke or the Cross Creek (Featherston) ends, but the latter is better as a visit first to the Fell Locomotive Museum in the main street of Featherston which has good displays, helps to put its railway history (from 1878 to 1955) in context. At 17 km in length, plus a 2 km access path at Cross Creek, it is probably too much for most people to walk both ways in one day, although mountain biking over it is now as popular as walking.

The Featherston museum has the "carry with you" guide book pictured above for $5, which quite oddly has the same text and photos arranged in order from both the Cross Creek and Kaitoke ends! Instead, using the duplicated space to include more captioned photos would have been more sensible.