As a young lad, I well remember my Mother taking us on several long distance (in those days) rail journies to visit relatives during the school holidays. I can recall sitting at the front carriage with coal chips falling from the tender into the passenger cabin. All the windows had to be closed when we were approaching longer tunnels, and the numerous brief stops for "Tea" at the various Tea rooms on the stations. We lived in the Wellington area (which was the centre for rail services for the whole country) and were used to using the local passenger rail services. In later years (1970's) I had the chance of writing a series of articles (which were published) about travelling around NZ by rail & its road services. My wife and I and one of our children had some weeks traelling around the country on a Railways supplied Rail Pass. A great journey and well worth while.