The West Coast Wilderness Railway runs from Strahan's Regatta Point into the old mining country between rainforest, river valleys, and steep hills. It follows part of the line built in the 1890s to move copper from Queenstown to the harbour.
The trip is as much about engineering as scenery. The original railway used a rack-and-pinion system for the steepest grades, and the restored service still gives a strong sense of how hard it was to work this coast.