Fall Asleep with Frank — A Slow Ride Through the Taieri Gorge cover art

Fall Asleep with Frank — A Slow Ride Through the Taieri Gorge

Fall Asleep with Frank — A Slow Ride Through the Taieri Gorge

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Tonight, Frank takes you on a slow, gentle train journey through one of New Zealand's most remarkable landscapes. The Taieri Gorge Railway winds through the deep, folded country south of Dunedin, following the Taieri River across a dozen iron viaducts and through ten tunnels, before emerging into the wide, quiet plains around Middlemarch. It is a line built through difficult terrain by patient hands, and it has been carrying passengers through that same scenery for well over a century.

Frank begins at Dunedin Railway Station — one of the most beautiful station buildings in the Southern Hemisphere, dressed in dark basalt and bright Oamaru stone — and follows the route kilometre by kilometre into the gorge. Along the way, he pauses at the Wingatui Viaduct, the largest wrought iron structure in New Zealand, built in 1887 and still standing quietly over Mullocky Gully. He describes the long, slow brightening as the train emerges from the Salisbury Tunnel, the rhythm of wheels on rail, and the particular feeling of being carried through a landscape without any effort of your own.

This is a sleep story for anyone who finds peace in old railways, quiet engineering, and the slow procession of rock and river outside a window. No decisions are required. Nothing is asked of you except to close your eyes and let the journey carry you. By the time the train reaches Middlemarch, you will almost certainly be asleep. A calming episode to help you relax and fall asleep.

This episode includes AI-generated content.
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