The Marlborough Flyer steam train.
Photo: RNZ / Tracy Neal
Pounamu Tourism Group owner Paul Jackson said they were preparing for about 60 cruise ship to arrive in Picton in 2020.
His company would take 300 passengers on the Marlborough Flyer steam train, delivering them to Blenhiem.
But when Covid-19 struck and he, like many others, was left with the vast majority of his usual market cut off by border closures. We were scratching our heads over lockdown and, obviously, the business was looking at 11,000 cruise passengers on the train and then back to zero, it was quite a jolt for us.
Five percent of their business was previously domestic.
South of Kaikōura, the rail journey will continue with two heritage DA locomotives built in the early 1950s, which will travel in double-header formation all the way to Invercargill. Upon reaching Invercargill, the tour will travel inland via luxury coach, taking in Te Anau, Milford Sound, Queenstown and Franz Josef.
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The tour will take passengers down the length of the South Island in heritage trains. The inland section of the tour will also feature a return journey on the iconic Kingston Flyer steam train, which is returning to commercial operation for the first time since 2013. The journey will conclude with the famous TranzAlpine rail journey, crossing the Southern Alps from Greymouth to Christchurch.
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Newshub can reveal COVID-19 is tearing through one of the most remote places on the planet: Everest Base Camp.
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