Train Ride -- Enter Me

Remember Wayne Mason's wonderful Nature, enter Me? Of course you do. Voted New Zealand's greatest ever song. What this has to do with me? Well, Wayne has graciously agreed to perform at the launch of my new book 'The G'Day Country Redux' his composition 'What Fred Said'. Fred Hamer retired from 53 years on the railways. My book is a celebration of a rail journey round New Zealand in the company of folk like Fred, the guards and engine drivers in 1985, and today with fellow Railways devotee and Paekakariki resident Michael O'Leary, who worked on the railways with likes of his old mate Hone Tuwhare, and has written railway poems for each chapter from Okaihau to Invercargill. The preface to the book is Michael and I taking the Overlander to hometown Auckland and comparing it with my 1985 Silver Fern trip. On the cover is engine 1271, which was Fred's last ride as engine driver last year.So come along to the launch and hear Wayne sing of Fred and 'Rails' magazine editor Bob Stott talk about 'The Boot Hill of Old Train Engines'. It is 3pm Saturday June 20 at Paekakariki Railway Station museum. Traditional refreshments. Toot, toot.