Train to Taihape & Gumboot Festival

On Saturday, Dad, Lionel, and I took a trip on an old coal/steam train to Taihape, which is north of Whanganui. Every year, they have a Gumboot Festival there, and so the train organization scheduled a train trip to take people to it on Saturday, March 8th this year.

This is me and Dad on the train.

Much as we enjoyed our trip, I can't say that I appreciate coal trains in general. Look at that nasty smoke!!

This is the Rangatikei River (remember I wrote about that name awhile ago). Lionel mentioned that it must have been a much bigger river at some point to have carved out those amazing cliffs!

We're not sure where the water is coming from that is flowing slowly down the cliffs, but it is very intriguing looking.

As you may have noticed, the countryside is much less green than it was in my spring (October) pictures. The grass/vegetation gets much more dried out, despite what I still consider ample amounts of rainfall. I have noticed that things are quite dry again very soon after it stops raining, due to the intensity of the sun, so that may have something to do with it.

When we got to Taihape after 2 hours in the train, we headed over to the Gumboot Festival, where the main event is a gumboot throwing competition. If you look, you can spot the gumboot in each picture, and in one of them (which Lionel kindly sent me), you can spot Dad and I as well.

We were amazed at how high and far the gumboots were thrown, even by passersby who just decided to give it a go. Apparently, every year they try to break the world gumboot throwing record, but I don't think they managed to this year.

Before we got back on the train, we walked over to Taihape's famous gumboot statue. It is made of corrugated steel of various colours, and is pretty interesting.

Of course, Dad and I climbed up to the top/heel, which was quite fun. The treads worked pretty well as a ladder, so it wasn't hard.

Lionel opted for a more dignified portrait at the bottom of the gumboot.

We also noticed that sunflowers, despite popular opinion, are not exclusively located in Kansas.

In fact, we saw two beautiful types of sunflowers, and a little girl walking by announced that she was going to take some seeds and grow some at home. Good idea!

I was very amused by all the gumboot related signs and names, but this one was my favourite! I don't know how effective a quilted gumboot would be, but that's okay.

We were pretty tired by the time we got back on the train, but we still had a very nice trip back. We even got to get off the train and explore out in the country. While we were doing this, the train backed up, and then chugged past us so that we could see it in action. Then it backed up again and we were able to get back on.

This is Dad, stretching his legs on a walk up the hilly land as we waited for the train to come back.

We will post more pictures soon.