The New Zealand train trip where the food is as spectacular as the scenery

You have a busy day ahead of you today. We have seven courses to get through!" Now that is the kind of daily grind I can get behind, especially when I glance out of my train's windows to see inbound passengers scurrying along the platforms of Wellington station on a chilly weekday morning.

As our onboard host Dawn has foreshadowed, I'm in for a very different kind of rail experience to those harried commuters. I'm travelling from Wellington to Auckland aboard the Northern Explorer train and it is indeed a pleasant setting. The train's carriages have large windows, which afford sweeping views of the impressive countryside as the train makes its way over 11 hours from New Zealand's capital to its biggest city.

I've been on this train before but always in Scenic class, which gets you a seat and recorded commentary, with the option of buying food and drink from the cafe car. This time, however, I'm in Scenic Plus, which includes a seven-course meal service - breakfast, lunch and dinner with additions - all cooked in an adjacent galley.

It'll be served to us in a tastefully refurbished version of the train's standard carriage. Its seats have been rearranged to face each other in sets of four, across tables set with a white tablecloths, glassware, condiments and cutlery.

Our hosts for the day are Dawn and Mel, who both exude a relaxed and friendly Kiwi vibe. The tone is set just before we depart, with Dawn asking us to wave at the platform crew as the train pulls out "to win a bet". Sure enough, they wave back as we slide smoothly out of the station and on our way north towards Auckland - and a memorable day of dining.

Our train quickly skims along the edge of Wellington Harbour, then passes through long tunnels as we leave the city's suburbs. The rain sets in hard as we forge northward, streaming down the windows as Dawn tells us about how sheep were brought in the 1830s to Mana Island off the Kapiti Coast, which the railway follows. About an hour after our 7.55am departure, coffee is served, accompanied by a delicious friand.

The rain clears as we pass through farming country dotted with cows, a long mountain ridge in the distance. Around 10.30am breakfast arrives in the form of a vegetable frittata with spiced beans and a strip of crisp bacon on top. As is the case with the majority of the ingredients on our plates today, these items have local origins; in fact the bacon is from the Wairarapa region, just to the east of our current location.

About noon we pass over a series of viaducts with impressive views of silvery-green rivers flowing below lofty white cliffs. There's an open-sided observation car farther back on the train for those who like to take photos without window reflections, but I stick to my snug window seat.

The weather improves as the day progresses, with the sun breaking out sporadically as we approach the Volcanic Plateau in the centre of the North Island. This coincides neatly with the crew pushing along the drinks trolley, taking orders for drinks to have with lunch. I'm happy with a non-alcoholic beer, but the range of beverages includes three white wines and two reds from across New Zealand, as well as a sparkling wine from the Marlborough region. There are wine pairing suggestions on the menu for each dish, a nice touch.

Lunch consists of glazed salmon with a capsicum and onion salsa, a zucchini salad with pomegranate and sunflower seeds, and potatoes tossed in herb pesto. It's delicious, and sets us up nicely for the Raurimu Spiral, an 1898 engineering triumph, which allows the train to descend to lower ground via a gracefully curving rail route down from the plateau. Sadly we've been denied views of the volcanic peaks which should loom to our right, as the weather has switched again and they're obscured by cloud. But Dawn makes up for that by giving us more lively commentary as the train eases its way down from the heights.

There's plenty more food as the afternoon goes by: dark chocolate raspberry truffles after lunch; a tasty platter of cheeses served with pickles, grapes and crackers around 2.30pm; then, after we've run alongside hilly green farmland, which reminds me of the Footrot Flats comic strip, a tasty dinner of slow-roasted lamb with a charred corn, coriander and lime salad, and spinach and potato gratin. Dessert is an apple and berry crumble with ice cream.

Dinner is served just after 5pm in expectation of a 7pm arrival in Auckland. The only problem is, due to various unavoidable delays along the way, we don't arrive there till 8.40pm. It's been a long day on the rails; but undeniably, a delicious one.

The writer travelled courtesy of Tourism New Zealand and Great Journeys New Zealand