The road to nowhere
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2007
1
80
131
Trip End
Jun 2009
Taumarunui,
New Zealand
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Glockenspiel
. The surrounding countryside and forests were as impressive as we had come to expect from NZ but found points of interest poorly signposted. We took several signed, long unsealed side roads with little gain at the end - one in particular was a round trip of about 200 km on an unsealed road and took about 3 hours. It was signed to a Maori pa and passed through farmland, nearing the end we wondered where on earth we had gone then finally saw an old sign through a gate. We drove on and down a track and came to an abrupt halt in a field full of sheep, they all scarpered scared to death I should imagine, whilst we got out to look for further direction. We inspected the land looking for earthworks but to no avail when finally we saw a stile, there wasn't any signage but it looked to lead through the forest. This must be it we thought. We followed a very old wooden pathway through the forest that was broken in parts, with small bridges and warning signs showing only one person at a time to cross. This path did not seem to have been walked in a very long time and cobwebs covered our faces as we went. Then we heard a distant low hum, as we continued it grew louder and louder and we finally decided that it could only be a bee or wasp nest, we tried to walk as silently as possible not wanting to disturb the swarm. We wondered if we should head back, not really sure where this path was going - if anywhere, or how long it would take, when finally we heard another familiar noise - the roar of thundering water. The path started to descend and on we went, finally arriving at an old viewing platform to the side of a large waterfall, not trusting the old structure we went on it one at a time to take in the view. Still with no pa in sight we decided to go the only way we could, back to the van. On the journey back to the main route we stopped at an aptly named 'pig skin fence' but didn't stop for too long given the numerous flies hanging around. Back on the road we decided not to take any more side roads in the fear that we might not make it to our final destination until next week - if we had more time this wouldn't have been an issue, but unfortunately we had only 3 days left until we had to hand the van back
Romeo and Juliet
. The next place on the route was a town called Whangamomona, a compulsory stop given the border control! This village became an independant republic following disagreements with local councils who wanted to move the townships, this would have forced them to play rugby for their current rivals. So, along with the border control, there is a president, which one year was a dog and they have their own beer which we obligingly sampled at the Whangamomona Hotel where we obtained our passports, the funds of which help local children. The Forgotten World Highway certainly did exactly what it said on the tin and it gave us a real sense of what NZ was like before the Europeans settled and logging commenced. We were sad to leave such rural beauty, if only a little disappointed at not seeing some of the historic sites. We hoped to get to Waitomo caves tomorrow for some blackwater rafting and needed to make up some distance, so we pushed on to Te Kuiti, a small village just south of Waitomo, where we found a small campsite and a very talkative site manger who made us feel very welcome despite being told off for sitting on a picnic table.
