Cable Car in Wellington

An Exhilarating Cable Car Ride

For sure, when you hear of cable cars, what immediately comes to mind are overhead cable cars, hanging by and running on cables.

But since you and I were raised at a time and in a country where jeepneys are kings of the road, and tricycles are every street corner's rowdies, cable cars therefore have not become our mode of transport. It is not surprising then that we are, err... a little ignorant about these "hanging cars."

    So, when David said we're driving down the hill to go to Wellington so I could experience a cable car ride, I was of course ecstatic to say the least. I was thrilled no end at the prospect of finally experiencing these much-talked about vehicles, which I used to see only in pictures and occasionally in Hollywood movies. 

    To my surprise though, Wellington's cable cars were not the ones I had in mind. They were not overhead cable cars that hung and run on cables, and they were very much different from those of Singapore and Gibraltar, which I saw in pictures. Pardon my ignorance, but they looked more like the mini-bus to me, or our very own tranvia.The only difference is, they run on rails like trains do. Thanks to the hubby, who is of course, always to the rescue, ever explaining and patient to the wife's limited capacity to comprehend. I learned that what I was seeing were a different type and are the more modern type of cable cars.

Wellington's Kelburn cable cars

The Kelburn Cable Car at 102 years old, is one of Wellington's oldest and most popular tourist attractions. Originally built over a period of four years by Upland Estate Real Estate Company from 1898 to 1902, and utilizing prison labor from the Terrace Goal, the system was aimed at providing means of transport to the farmland in Kelburn. However, upon completion of the system, the area was developed into the suburb as it is today. At present, the cable car provides a unique form of transport to the suburb of Kelburn and the top of the Botanic Garden. There are three immediate stops. First is Clifton, which leads to the Terrace and the Student Accommodation at Everton Hall. Second is at Talavera, which is the mid-point of the track and where the cars pass each other. The third is at Salamanca, which links to the Victoria University and to more student accommodation at Weir House. 

         The ride though, was indeed one exhilarating experience. David made sure I had a good vantage point for the trip, so he suggested not to take a seat but instead to stand on the right-hand side of the driver from my position.     I could see the view of Wellington and beyond in that 612 meter long ride at the speed of 18 kilometers per hour. The sight was breathtaking - seeing how the cable car climbed right up to the sky from under the city high rise buildings. through tunnels and over viaducts to the residential suburbs. How I wish you could all experience what I had because I could not find enough words to explain how I felt. 

For the uninitiated like me 

         But of course, that is not all there is to know about cable cars, so I asked the hubby to find reading materials which I could use as reference to explain to you how these cable cars worked. 

         So he bought me one - Wellington's Kelburn Cable Car by Graham Stewart) from which the following information was culled: 

          How the modern cable car works:

         The cable car, in technical terms, is a standing funicular. which operates on a balanced rope-system. The two cable cars are at the opposite end of a single cable. The movement of the cable is powered by an electric motor under the terminus. As one car moves up the track, the other moves down.
         The cars run on a meter gauge single track with a 300-meter radius passing loop, the midway point on the incline.
         They have double flanged wheels fitted on one side and flat wheels on the other. These enable each car to "steer" with its flanged wheels - to follow the outer rails that ensures each car always takes the opposite side of the passing loop to the other car. 

         The driving control and the breaking systems are controlled by automatic electronic equipment. The cars are equipped with four separate breaks for normal and emergency breaking. The cable car drivers control the starting of the cars and the doors. 

Just in case you want more info:

         In his cable car website, Joe Thompson (http://www.cable-car-guy.com)defines a cable car, as "a public transit vehicle which runs on rails and which moves primarily by gripping an endless cable which runs in a conduit under the street.  They are also called cable tramways."

         This form of public transport flourished briefly, 1880 to 1890.

         The first commercially successful cable car line was the clay street Hill Railroad in San Francisco, California which opened in 1873. The line was promoted by Andrew Smith Hallidie, a wire cable  manufacturer and largely designed by William E Eppelsheimer ]. The first cable car line outside of /san Francisco opened in 1881 in Dunedin, New Zealand. The first US cable car line outside of San Francisco opened in Chicago, Illinois in 1882. 

  

Featherston

Featherston

Home to us is a 120-year-old cottage-type house located in a small town called Featherston, one of the town in the region known as the Wairarapa.  An hour away by car from the capital city of Wellington, Featherston has around 2,500 residents, ten of which are Filipinas. You guessed it right, I just recently made it a perfect 10. 

To get to Wellington from Featherston and back, we have to take a twisty road (mentioned earlier) called the Remutaka Hill Road which as the name implies, runs through several hills, the highest of which is 550 meters above sea level. This winding road is much like our zigzag road going to Baguio City, only probably longer, and as hills are wont, are also prone to landslides (which they call "slips" here), during really heavy rains.   
Featherston is close to Lake Wairarapa, the biggest wetland area in the lower North island (New Zealand is divided into two major islands - the North and the South, plus several other islets), which also offers picnic areas and a venue for yachting bird watching fishing and game shooting. The area is also significant for native and migratory birds. 

         Our town is home to two museums that have no counterparts anywhere in New Zealand. One is the Fell Engine Museum, which houses the only fell engine in the world, the sole survivor of the rolling stock of the Remutaka incline and the only rail route into Wairarapa until 1955. The museum also contains an incline Brake Van working models and items of railway memorabilia. The other museum is called The Featherston Heritage Museum., which commemorate the Featherston military camp from World War ll.     

         No doubt, this Kiwi country is peaceful and beautiful not to mention bountiful, but still, nothing compares to waking up to the smell of freshly baked pandesal or fried dilis, fresh tomatoes and steaming sinangag for almuchaw. Yum! 

Wintertime

It's as cold as can be! Especially during the early mornings when there was frost on the ground and the temperature dropped to as low as negative three, which almost always happened if the sky was a clear blue and the atmosphere was peaceful, meaning; no wind, no rain the afternoon and night before. 

A rain of hailstones was a different wonder. You'd hear noise on the roof as though there was a heavy downpour, but instead of rainwater, there were stones the size of mung beans bouncing on the roof, on the pavement and everywhere. After which rock salt-like hailstones covered the ground. 

And then there was the gale force wind. Gale, I learned are a common occurrence here as evidenced by trees growing only in one and the same direction, that is, the wind's direction. The last one that blew in some parts of New Zealand last August, was at least 155 to 180 kph. I imagine, if one day, nature gets really freaked out with us Pinoys, because of our consistent bickering and just blows wind of this magnitude at our directions, we would all wake up sans roof over our heads, but that would be if our houses are still standing and in one piece by then. 

         Then of course, that white, flaky magic snow! Thank God it didn't fall on our area. But it did on the Remutaka Hill Road several times, so thick, that it became dangerous at one point for motorists to take that route, so for a time, it was closed to traffic. David made it a point that promdie me would  experience snow for the first time by driving me over the hill, one snowy morning. Indeed, the cold was biting, but the novelty of the experience of touching snow and making a snow ball for the first time was incomparable. Just wonderful! 

    If it's any consolation, the Philippines is not alone when it comes to experiencing natural calamities. In recent weeks, NZ was pounded by heavy rains, landslides and flood, causing damages to infrastructures, properties, livestock, and worse, claiming people's lives including that of our kababayan who had been living in New Zealand for 16 years.