TRAIN EXCURSION TO OTIRA NEXT SUNDAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18057, 18 January 1927, Page 15

TRAIN EXCURSION TO OTIRA NEXT SUNDAY.

There must still be thousands of Christchurch people who have not seen the Otira tunnel or who have not had the opportunity of participating in that delightful walk from Arthur's Pass to Otira. The Railway Department are affording these people and any others who care to make the trip again a further chance by running another of the popular excursions on Sunday next. The train will leave Christchurch at S.lO a.m., and will pick up passengers at Addington. Hornby, Templeton, Rolleston, Kirwee, Darfield, Sheffield and Springfield, arriving at Otira at 12.19 p.m. The return journey will be commenced at 4.25 p.m.

Past experience has shown that the big majority of people leave the train at Arthur’s Pass and. after partaking of a meal at the new. hostel there, they have any amount of time to walk leisurely over the pass and to view the beautiful scenery which meets the eye all along the route. This walk is one not beyond the powers of persons well up in years, and many elderly folk have negotiated the easy grades without discomfort. A member of the Railway Department will accompany the excursionists who walk through the Gorge on Sunday next. The people who walk through the gorge will, of course, be able to sec the tunnel from the train on the return journey. As for those people who go straight through by train to Otira, they will be catered for at the railway refreshment rooms, and after that they will have between three and four hours to look round the scenery on the West Coast side. Those who care for the exercise will have plenty of time to walk through the gorge from the Otira end to Arthur’s Pass and board the home train there. The grade from the Otira end, however, is more difficult than it is from the Arthur s Pass end to Otira. As there will be only one train running, the accommodation will be restricted, and intending passengers would be well advised to book their scats.