1 / 3Gisborne City Vintage Railway
📍 Awapuni, Gisborne
Is this your venue? Claim this listing →
Best for train-mad kids on a set excursion day. Volunteers run the 1897 steam locomotive Wa165 from Gisborne to Muriwai on scheduled dates from spring to autumn, crossing an airport runway and the North Island's longest rail bridge on the way.
🏆 Family Action Verdict
If your child likes trains at all, plan a Gisborne visit around an excursion day, because this is a once-in-a-lifetime ride at a very reasonable price. Toddlers can wave at the planes from a seat; older kids should stand on the open platform behind the engine for the return. Book ahead through the i-SITE, since seats sell out on holiday weekends.
ℹ️ What to Know Before You Go
💬 What Families Are Saying
View all reviews →33 Google reviews
G Reviews from Google
Naveed Ali
9 months ago
“I visit before Christmas ❣️”
Dean Rayner
2 months ago
“This was amongst the more unusual train trips I have taken. As you leave Gisborne, you chug off through the town, then along behind houses and businesses then out into the open fields only to find yourself crossing the active runway at Gisborne Airport. I think this is only one of two railways that do this. We held up an Air New Zealand flight as we chugged across. Great trip.”
S J K
3 years ago
“I enjoyed a wonderful trip on the train on Easter Day. Everything was superb and the people running the train were unfailingly helpful and delightful to speak with. We had to stop to let a plane land before crossing the runway on the outward trip and chuffed furiously across it on the return. I rode on the open platform at the end of the front carriage on the way back to Gisborne, immediately behind the steam locomotive, which was a sublime experience. A thoroughly memorable afternoon out, which I would commend to young and old alike.”
📊 Commonly mentioned in Google reviews
Based on Google review tagsTrains
9 reviews
Trip
4 reviews
Volunteer
2 reviews
Airport
2 reviews
Runway
2 reviews
Overview
Gisborne City Vintage Railway is a volunteer society that keeps Wa165, built at Hillside in Dunedin in 1897 and the last of its class in the world, in steam. Excursions run from the Gisborne platform off Awapuni Road down to Muriwai and back, and two things make the trip: the train stops to let aircraft land before it steams across the main runway of Gisborne Airport, the only railway in the world that does, and it crosses the long Waipaoa River bridge. An open platform sits behind the engine.
