The Great Journeys of New Zealand alternative to flying. In 2017, KiwiRail decided to bring them together under one brand, The Great Journeys of New Zealand, which offers a connected passenger service throughout New Zealand, from Auckland to Greymouth, via train and ferry. The division is now experiencing rapid double digit annual growth, due to the growth of Chinese tourism to New Zealand, leading KiwiRail to announce that it may purchase eight AK-class carriages to add to the seventeen purchased in 2010. The Great Journeys of New Zealand operates three Scenic trains services: Three Cook Strait passenger ferries operate under the brand Interislander: KiwiRail Scenic Journeys's
Stoats in New Zealand Stoats in New Zealand Stoats ("Mustela erminea") were introduced into New Zealand to control introduced rabbits and hares, but are now a major threat to the native bird population. The natural range of the stoat is limited to parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Immediately before human settlement, New Zealand did not have any land-based mammals apart from bats, but Polynesian and European settlers introduced a wide variety of animals. The rabbit was introduced by European settlers as a food and game animal, and by the 1870s it was becoming a serious threat to the newly developed farming economy. Farmers began