In 2012, KiwiRail announced the Overlander would be replaced by the Northern Explorer, with modern New Zealand-built AK class carriages to provide a premium tourist train on a quicker timetable with fewer stops. It commenced on Monday 25 June 2012, and consists of one train running from Auckland-to-Wellington on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and Wellington-to-Auckland on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. It has fewer stops than the Overlander, stopping only at Papakura, Hamilton, Otorohanga, National Park, Ohakune, Palmerston North and Paraparaumu. Along with the other tourist rail services—the Coastal Pacific and TranzAlpine (both in the South Island), and the Interislander rail-ferry services across Cook Strait, the Northern Explorer is operated by "The Great Journeys of New Zealand", a division of KiwiRail.