Bursting out

'Scream' and Emily Roberts are credited as the artists who painted this electronics box on the side of Kenepuru Drive in Porirua, Wellington. I noticed it earlier in the day, and was unable to stop to get a photo. A late finish at the Crisis Team meant going back to the motel in the dark. I was able to stop, and take this photo. I think it is much more dramatic picked out of the dark by the flash.

Porirua Railway Station is some distance from where I took this photo. It is regarded as an important intermediate station on the main trunk line connecting Wellington to Auckland. The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company built the line north from central Wellington, and the section through Porirua was opened in September 1885. The NZ Government took over the line in 1908. As the line was electrified in 1940, steam locomotives were thereafter confined to the long distance trains coming into Wellington from the north.

When I started university we would pass through Porirua on our way from Hamilton to Wellington to catch the overnight ferry to Lyttleton (Christchurch's port) where we would take a train into the city before hitchhiking south to Dunedin. Going north, although some people would take the train from central Wellington to Paekakariki before starting to hitch, we would get off the train at Ngaranga and start there. There was informal competition as to numbers of rides and length of time. I still have the all important university scarf which announced one's status as a student and therefore worthy of being given a ride.

I've always enjoyed travelling by train.