That would not happen again, Mr Coldham said.
"We've booked in for next year."
Mrs Coldham said the ride, the scenery and the responses along the way made it a great way to start the big weekend.
"Because only a steam train can do that."
The couple were delighted to see the reception at Otane, where local schoolchildren all turned out to form a welcoming party.
For Waikanae couple Barbara and Ian Timperley it was their seventh Art Deco Weekend and the train trip was always memorable.
"In a steam train you get to understand why the children got to know them as choo-choos," Mrs Timperley said.
"You got the odd flick of smoke from time to time but that's what it's about," her husband said.
The best parts, they agreed, were the bends, where they and others aboard were able to take shots of the smoke-belching engine up ahead.
Little 5-year-old Finn Blair of Napier thought it was all rather exciting.
"It was his first time on a steam train and it was really enjoyable," mum Celia Lister said.
In terms of the great steam engine itself, one former stoker/fireman, who was there to see it depart for the trip just after 8.30 in the morning, said it was "a good engine, that".
He said he had shovelled a bit of coal in his 11 years working on them from the early 1950s.
"The Christchurch to Timaru run was about 100 miles - you'd shovel about five tonnes of coal."
Had that been tough going?
"Well, I'm 82 and I'm still here," he laughed, before setting off to see the steam train take on the Te Aute incline, preferring not to provide his name.
The steam train will make short return trips to Hastings today as well as hosting the pea pie and pud run to Otane and back later in the day.
Tomorrow, the family foodie special trip to Waipukurau, complete with gourmet lunches, is on the tracks.
