I’ve been transported to the middle Earth-ish middle of the North Island by the of Wellington, which wends its way through magnificent countryside. Dramatic coastline giving way to vineyards giving way to pastureland giving way to forests giving way to the volcanic plateau of the Mount Ruapehu region, where the perfectly conical Mount Doom (as it is named in Lord of the Rings) doomily presides over a lunar landscape.

It’s a scenic four hours, a relaxing blur of green and sheep and steep drops into ravines and rapids carving their way through the land of the long white cloud. There’s plenty of cloud, too, and plenty of time to stare into space – train travel is mesmerising, and eyes glazing over the passing landscape and skyscape is a kind of meditation.

This can be arrested by an exhortation from the jovial host Bruce, who obligingly alerts travellers to approaching beauty well ahead of time: the Northern Explorer, Bruce tells me, is one of only two trains in the world with an open-air carriage at the back. Here you can head down the back for a blast of Antarctic wind and a photo opportunity with no glass to hamper the frame.

The Northern Explorer extends to the top of the North Island and terminates in Auckland. It incorporates the famous engineering feat that is the Raurimu Spiral, a section of track that uses the natural curves of the landscape, a horseshoe bend, and three hairpin turns to climb 139 metres in 6.8kms. It’s a giddy highlight for railway anoraks, and still pretty cool for the rest of us.