Today is our long car day – we are heading out from New Plymouth to Hamilton, but not on a direct route – we’ve got lots planned in between. The weather is spectacular! Hardly a cloud in the sky, high 60’s, low 70’s – just beautiful – and the mountain is out! All the way to the peak!
Perfect! First on our agenda is a hike in the Egmont National Park. It’s about an hour and a half drive there, through hill and dale, and these quaint little NZ towns – like Stratford, where all the streets are named after something in a Shakespeare play – and the main street is straight out of the 50’s – lined with shops and eateries and parallel parking – the whole shebang!
The driving is pretty easy – Ed’s getting into it – and we head around the mountain and into the farm fields again until we hit the entrance to Dawson Falls. There is a sign that says “Slow Down – grit and ice” – ha! That sign does NOT prepare you for the road! Seriously slow down is what it should have said! To be honest, the road itself is fine – well maintained, winding through the forest – it’s the fact that it’s virtually one lane! You come off this two lane little country road – see the slow down sign and then Wham! You are go through a canopy of trees onto this thing – nail biting!
Thank God we’re out here early! Its just us and the road, which is a very happy thing! We make it up to the visitor center unscathed and head out on the Wilkies Pool trail. It’s an easy 2.3km trail straight up one of the minor slopes of the mountain. The trail itself is meticulously manicured with some sort of rubber matting stuck down into the pebbles and pine needles. It’s just enough to keep you from slipping, but not enough to take away from the hiking experience. the hike is really quite nice, good morning exercise and the forest is cool! The trees are called a Goblin Forest because they look so gnarled and have tons of moss hanging off them. The stream and pools are pretty too – and the mountain – a perfect little excursion!
The views over the valley are spectacular too! They deserve their own photo here… 
Heading back down out of the park, we stop for a quick walk to Dawson’s Falls. It’s a pretty large waterfall, and an easy walk up and down stair stepped forest paths.
Back on that awful road again! Fortunately, there’s only one oncoming vehicle the whole time – but wow – what a wild ride! And little did we know, that would be considered tame by the end of the day!
We are heading to the Forgotten World Highway next, so named because it traces the path of the ancient Maori trade routes and the ambitious pioneer settlements in some pretty unforgiving countryside. It’s remote and supposedly stunning and full of history. As we drive back through Stratford and into the countryside, we keep getting glimpses of Mt. Taranaki, now with the all too familiar cloud cover on its peak. Still breathtaking nonetheless!
The Forgotten World Highway (State route 43) starts out tame enough, with a winding 2-lane “highway” through the rolling and undulating hills heading northeast through the countryside. There are cows, and cows, and more cows. Oh, and sheep, and sheep, and more sheep! They are everywhere – and that’s about all there is – besides awesome countryside and these hills – that look more like mounds of earth, all terraced and green with grass.
Please excuse some of the pictures here – they were mostly taken from the car window. The road is narrow, and 100KPH, and there isn’t really anywhere to stop where you aren’t constantly worried about someone flying up from behind and annihilating you. Thus, we only stopped when we could find ample space on the side of the road – and only then when we could see it well in advance, since we were whipping along – but trust me – not at 100KPH – that is just suicidal!
The road starts to climb up into the hills, and it starts to get windier and trickier. The first big rise is up the Strathmore Saddle where we have fabulous views of the mountains and the rolling valleys below.
The road continues it’s windy, curvy way through the countryside. The speed limit signs still say 100KM, but we’re not buying it! No way – not even a local would do that – would they? It’s intense driving! But fortunately there is no one out here. We’ve seen 2 camper vans (big out here – those little RVs) and a couple of trucks. Which is probably a good thing considering these roads! Ay yi yi!
We stop a little ways up the road at Pohokua Saddle for the scenery and for lunch. We’ve rather smartly brought our own food – sliced chorizo sausage, sliced cheese and an apple. Good thinking since we’ve seen no food establishments (or any other establishment for that matter) on the road so far. At the beginning of the road there is a sign warning of “no petrol for 150 km.” To say you are in the wilderness is an understatement!
We push onward – we’re not even half way and we’ve got a heck of a lot of area to cover between here and Hamilton – our stop for the evening. The scenery is just exquisite. The road – not so exquisite – but Ed is in the zone. He is taking these curves like a pro – I’m thinking the Kiwi version of Rusty Wallace – I mean, I’m forgetting were on the left side of the road and he’s on the right side of the car – he’s doing that well!
As we are approaching Whangamomona – the railroad track meets up with the road and runs parallel for a bit. On the tracks are these wild little cart type things – they look like golf carts – but are equipped for the railroad. These are the “be your own railroad” tours where you can hire the carts and literally ride the rail from Douglas up to Whangamomona! Too wild – but also way too slow – good lord – it would take you all day just to get to Whangamomona! Slow food is one thing – slow rail cart is another!
We pass through Whangamomona – it is said to be an “almost ghost town” because it was thriving when the railway line came through in the 30’s, but then went into steep decline in the 70’s. But honestly – it’s small – but it’s populated. Every little building (the 6 or 7 of them) was inhabited with some sort of retail outlet – and while we know it is all geared to tourists – it ain’t no ghost town!
Whangamomona has another piece of interesting history – the townsfolk got upset when regional council boundaries were redrawn in 1989. The town wanted to stay in the Taranaki region, not another region. They became so upset that they declared themselves the “Republic of Whangamomona”. So now, they have a Republic day bi-annually where thousands of folks descend upon this little outpost to celebrate their independence. As we are driving through town, we see signs promoting the Republic day – and it is tomorrow! That’s timing for you! Because no way would we want to be driving these roads with 1000s of other folks! Ha – the 3 or 4 we’ve seen so far are enough for us!
After Whananomona the road really kicks up a notch, or two or three! Twisty, turny, windy, hilly, you name it, it does it. Ed is in the zone – and sorry Sigis – but I think after this drive he has won the #1 Driver in all the World status. It was that intense!
After driving a bit through the twisty, turny roads, we final hit upon the Moki Tunnel. There have been signs warning us of this tunnel for at least 50 KM. It’s one lane, it’s only so high. Well, yeah, so? Oh dear! You come up on this thing – and it is one lane – and you CANNOT see beyond it or through it, you just have to hope no one is coming at 100KM on the other side. It’s like a big dark hole, then you’re driving through it – and you can see the light and you just hope and pray you make it through! Argh! We wanted adventure? we got adventure!
Oh – and then we hit the “unpaved” section! Yeah, not only are we twisty, turny, windy, hilly, now we’re on gravel. For about 16km, we slalom through what we call “Lost-ish” territory (looks just like the scenes from the TV show Lost) and we are all alone. The road is one thing, the solitude another. when you stop to think about it – it is sort of surreal and scary that we are out in the middle of no-where-land-New Zealand on a gravel road with nothing and nobody anywhere to be seen. Eerie!
And so it goes – for another hour or so! Until we get to the turn off to Ohura and decide to skip the rest of the Forgotten World Highway and head on into Hamilton where a well deserved beer is waiting for Ed! And Ohura? Well that really is the ghost town! Its like an old west town that has been abandoned! The buildings look like the old west with those wooden deck-like walkways, wood storefronts and porticoes, mostly boarded up – and even though it’s a paved road, it still sort feels dusty and dirty? Wish we had pictures, but again – too hard to stop!
Onward we go – toward Hamilton on little teeny 2 lanes roads, with random cones in the middle of the road. Turns out these are for the herding – we come upon a couple of quads in the road and then a guy on a quad herding the sheep in the field – modern day farm living!
Finally out of the country and on to Hamilton! A long day – but an excellent one – even though the drive was hard – the scenery and experience were totally rewarding!
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