Yesterday, after 48 years of marriage, he and wife Margaret relived the southern leg of the journey on the inaugural service of the Mainlander from Dunedin to Invercargill. The couple had met in Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1978. Three weeks after they met, Mr Maclean made the trip from Auckland to his future wife’s home in Gore aboard the Southerner to propose. "We'd only seen each other and met a couple of times in Australia ... and he didn’t forget me. Geraldine couple Margaret, 71, and John Maclean, 80, catch The Mainlander to Invercargill from Dunedin Railway Station yesterday.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 21, 2026 21:11 UTC