March 06, 2014
Next up on our road-trip agenda was the drive from Tongariro National Park to the Taranaki Region. While we could save a little time by taking the main highway, there was another route that sounded very intriguing: The Forgotten World Highway.
This historic highway was built along colonial bridle paths. It winds 96 miles through hills, valleys, a deep gorge, and a 1-lane tunnel. A portion of the road remains unpaved, and although it goes through one tiny town, there are no gas stations along the way. Since this road has been supplanted by more direct and convenient highways, it gets very little use and is considered a relic from another time, a trip through “old New Zealand.” It’s also billed as one of New Zealand’s most picturesque drives.
Since we weren’t in a big hurry and enjoyed driving our Audi through just this sort of scenic landscape, it was an easy decision to opt for the Forgotten Highway as our route to the Taranaki region.
Grassy hill scenery is very common in New Zealand, but as we headed along the road it quickly became apparent there was something unusual about this area. I realized it was the hills—it was like giant hands had come and smooshed the hills closer together, making strange-looking mounds I’ve termed humpity bumpities. These particular humpity bumpities were large, with rounded mounts and pyramid shapes.
Across this landscape were scattered trees, their leaves turning yellow with the approach of fall, but most of the land was grass, scattered with Middle-Earthy boulders. Not surprisingly there were plenty of peacefully grazing cows and sheep. (Below, a few photos from the drive; click to enlarge any photo in galleries that follow.)
For the next four hours we wound through this scenery, going up and down over hills and through valleys. During this time a very strange and wonderful thing happened: Our music playlist seemed to “sense” the mood of the scenery outside and played music to match, which included a fair amount of classical music and, as we crossed train tracks, a song about a train coming. It almost felt like we were in a dream.
As we neared the Tangarakau Gorge, we came to the unpaved part of the road, which ran about 7 miles. The vegetation became lush and green, a classic New Zealand tree-fern forest. We stopped to take photos of the Tangarakau river, the bridge that went over it, and then made the short hike to the gravesite of the man who headed this historic bridge project. Below some photos…
And a panorama….
Once back in our car we came to the Moki Tunnel, 180 meters long and hand-carved by pickaxes. We could see the lights of a car coming from the opposite direction; so we pulled over to wait for it to come through.
It was a guy in a truck, and he stopped alongside us and motioned for us to roll down our window. He then told us that in his 50 years here, we were the first car he’d ever seen coming the other way! Wow. It goes to show how little-used this road is. We had a friendly chat before we headed on through the tunnel.
After the tunnel, the hills took on an even more surreal look, like layers of pyramid shapes. We drove by the four famous “saddles,” which in this case seemed to refer to valleys amid the hills. We also went through the tiny town of Whangamomona with a few historic buildings and not much else.
The Forgotten World Highway ended in a town called Stratford, its key sight a clock tower. At this point we made the turn towards New Plymouth, ending our drive on this famous highway. It had been quite an experience, especially for Rich who called it the highlight of his driving experiences in New Zealand. That’s saying a lot, especially considering that Rich generally doesn’t like to spend hours at a time behind the wheel. I have to say the drive seemed to go by very quickly–I guess time flies when we’re passing through a dream world (and having fun).–Cyndi
