The very small world

Today I spent 12 hours travelling 681km by train over 352 bridges and through 14 tunnels between Auckland and Wellington. Stupidly I didn't realise that I could have got up two hours later and caught the train at my brother's local station instead of him driving me to the centre of Auckland while it was still dark.

But the upside was that I got chatting over an early-morning coffee to another woman travelling on her own. We have worked in very similar fields, we have similar interests, we know several people in common, she volunteers for an organisation affiliated with my last employer...

More evidence that six degrees of separation is an over-estimate. I almost went to interview all the other passengers but I had things to look at.

The train goes through mountains and forests, past tumbling rivers and rolling hills. Startled geese, foals and calves run from the train as its noise invades their fields. At any one time 20 to 30 of the train's 150 passengers stand on the open air viewing platform at the front of the train and I spent a lot of time there. A woman in sunglasses commented to me on her husband staggering towards us as the train lurched then she stopped and stared at me. Then I recognised her too. We were colleagues in my job before last and used to spend our lunch breaks walking together. We are spending the day in Wellington tomorrow and catching the same train south the following day. She could have booked for last week. I could have booked for tomorrow. We have agreed to send a joint postcard to our ex-colleagues. Will they believe it any more than we do?

I took masses of pictures from the train but found this footbridge by the harbour in the Wellington dusk which I much preferred.