Driving Creek Railway

The Driving Creek Railway is a narrow-gauge mountain railway built entirely by one man — potter and eccentric Barry Brickell — in the hills above Coromandel Town. The sixty-minute return trip climbs through native bush on a route that includes three reversals, five viaducts, two spiral loops, and two tunnels, reaching the summit — which Brickell named "Eyefull Tower" — for views over the Hauraki Gulf.

It is, objectively, a remarkable thing. The track is narrow gauge (381mm), the locomotives were built or heavily modified in Brickell's own workshop, and the whole enterprise has the feel of a brilliant obsessive's life project — because that's exactly what it is. The native bush regenerating along the hillside is now thick enough to support kiwi, tui, and weka. Trains run several times daily; booking ahead is recommended in summer.

things to do sight
A story
Barry Brickell began building the Driving Creek Railway in 1975 as a way to haul clay from the hillside to his ceramics studio. He built it entirely himself — the track, the locomotives, the tunnels, the bridges — learning as he went over decades. Brickell, a committed environmentalist, simultaneously planted native bush across the deforested hillside. When he died in 2016, the railway had become one of the most singular tourist attractions in the country. The native forest he planted now provides habitat for rare birds.