This is the best bit of the train journey from Wellington to Masterton. After an endless 10 minutes in the tunnel under the Rimutakas and a short run through a wooded valley the scene opens up. I take a deep breath and with a small feeling of joy look out the window.
The wide open spaces are cool relief after the claustrophobic urban landscapes of Wellington and the Hutt Valley. Open country interspersed with trees down to Lake Wairarapa with the hills in the background.
It’s one of those homecoming moments in a journey - like the bend in the road at Island Block on Highway 8 where my Parents' farm can be seen for the first time, or that high point on Highway 50 between Tikokino and Maraekakaho where the full expanse of the Heretaunga plains suddenly comes in to view, or coming out of the Ngauranga Gorge on the motorway and seeing Wellington on a sunny blue day.
Yeah, that sort of thing.
