Thia pleasant island nation has an excellent rail, bus, and ferry system with travel passes at a bargain price for tourists. Our passes were good for 5 days travel on all trains, busses, and boats, and we used every mile and minute.
TraNZrail operates the trains and Interisland ferries, and is operated by Wisconsin Central, a US railway company, who run their NZ holdings in a way that should make AMTRAK green with envy. We rode from Auckland to Wellington, which is not billed as a scenic trip but was, took the boat from Wellington to Picton, and train from Picton to Christchurch. Train from Christchurch to Dunedin, where we used unusually comfortable busses for an interior tour, ending at Greymouth on the west coast. From Greymouth, we took the TRANZALPINE express across the mountains to Christchurch from which we departed the country.
I managed to miss some fine steam operation since I didn't know where and when it was happening. This kind of information is not easily available for Yanks. If any Kiwi steam persons would set up a web site it would be most welcomed in the US.
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