One place I was itching to visit since we lived in Tauranga was the old Waikino Station Cafe - located within the Karangahake Gorge Region and just off the main highway. I use to think this was still an actual railway station but it turns out it is now a vintage rail cafe.
Unfortunately because it's Winter here the cafe was closed so the closest I could get was taking a photo from the front over the tracks.
The construction was first started in 1900 and was opened in 1905 for goods and passengers. This would've been quite an isolated area, these days it's in the middle of the countryside within the Karangahake Gorge so it would also probably been used to cart stone and rock from the railway within the Gorge itself.
So here's how it would've first looked in 1905. In 1952 the station stopped operating and in 1961 it was closed. Good to know now though that it's been used for something good.
