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
New Zealand mole cricket New Zealand mole cricket The New Zealand mole cricket ("Triamescaptor aotea") is a wingless member of the mole cricket family Gryllotalpidae. Endemic to New Zealand, it lives underground and is rarely seen. It is now restricted to parts of the southern North Island. The mole cricket was well known to Māori, who encountered it when cultivating garden plots and called it honi. Mole crickets collected in New Zealand were assumed to be the European species "Gryllotalpa vulgaris" (a synonym of "Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa"), which has a wingless nymph that resembles the adult New Zealand species. "Triamescaptor aotea" was named and described