Re: Most exotic place you ever visited?
Author: fkrock
Date: 04-05-2010 - 09:59
On Rarotonga, Cook Islands, a local lawyer has imported a meter gauge steam locomotive from Poland. One of his clients is one of the local queens. A hotel is being built on her property. The lawyer plans to build a tourist railroad on her property from the hotel to a waterfall about 2-3 miles away.
The locomotive has been restored to operation and runs on several hundred of feet of track at the lawyer's home. The locomotive was one of the very last steam locomotives built in Poland and is in very good condition. The boiler was rebuilt to New Zealand standards since the nation of Cook Islands has no boiler regulations. The locomotive is a static display tourist attraction at this time. Your $2.00 (New Zealand) admission gets you a soft drink and a locomotive shaped cookie sold by the lawyer's son.
No rail lines of any kind have ever operated in the Cook Islands in the past (other than a cart on rails to pull boats out of the water in a shipard).