Featherston
Featherston is a small Wairarapa town best known to New Zealanders for two things: its cluster of secondhand bookshops, which punch well above the town's size and draw dedicated book-hunters from Wellington, and its role as the base of the old Remutaka Incline railway, a steep rack-and-pinion line that once hauled trains over the hill before the modern deviation tunnel replaced it; the Fell Locomotive Museum preserves one of the unique engines built for that line.
Outside these two draws, Featherston functions mainly as a gateway to the wider Wairarapa, sitting close to Lake Wairarapa and within easy reach of the region's wine towns (Martinborough, Greytown) and the wild south coast near Cape Palliser. Most visitors treat it as a brief stop rather than a base, though its position at the southern end of the Wairarapa makes it a logical first or last stop on a loop through the region.
Featherston FAQs
On its own, it's a modest stop best combined with the rest of the Wairarapa (wine towns, Cape Palliser) rather than visited in isolation; the secondhand bookshops are the main draw if books interest you.
Yes, the Wairarapa line runs from Wellington and is a scenic, low-effort alternative to driving over the Remutaka Hill; check the timetable since services aren't frequent.
It houses one of the last surviving Fell engines, a specialised locomotive type built for the old steep incline railway that once crossed the Remutaka Range before the current tunnel route was built; it keeps limited opening hours, mostly weekends.
It's a workable base given its position at the southern end of the region, close to Lake Wairarapa and within reach of Martinborough's wineries and the Cape Palliser coast, though Martinborough itself has more accommodation and dining choice.
About 45 minutes' drive along an increasingly remote coastal road, past Lake Ferry, to the lighthouse and New Zealand fur seal colony at the cape.
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