In Taumarunui the hilltop view looks out towards range after range of razorbacks all the way from the centre of the North Island to the Tasman Sea. The Forgotten Highway undulates through this isolated part of the country. As summer turns to autumn the whole island lies under an intense anti-cyclone, perfect for riding the highway to Stratford and returning to Taumarunui on the railway line.
The road is state highway 43, which was given its moniker some decades ago by David Walter – a respected Taranaki farmer and former mayor of Stratford – because the road had fallen into a state of neglect and the railway line had closed. In recent times the road has been mostly sealed, and the railway revived by a private venture company.
Stratford is 148 km away as I ride along the bank of the Whanganui river, which has cut a deep bed into the mudstone deposited over the region by the great eruption of Lake Taupo in 186 AD. After 15 km the road leaves the river and climbs over several saddles. The first is called Tunnel Hill, but sadly there is no sign of a tunnel, so I climb to the lookout at the top. The view extends to the volcanic peaks in the middle of the island and to Mt Taranaki in the far distance. I stop at the entrance to the Tangarakau Gorge. Maori legend has it that the gorge was gouged out by Mt Taranaki as it walked west after its divorce from Mt Ruapehu. A Maori walking track existed down the Tangarakau river; Maori, however, never settled in the gorge believing that its origin would bring misfortune.
The gorge is about 15 km long, very narrow, steep-sided, and covered in native bush. The road through the gorge is the only unsealed stretch of state highway in the country. In 1890 the gorge was surveyed by Joshua Morgan for the construction of a road. Sadly he developed peritonitis and, far from medical aid, died in March 1893, aged 35. He was buried in the gorge; his wife Annie outlived him by 60 years and her ashes were placed in the same grave.
The road climbs out of the gorge up to the Moki tunnel – known locally as Hobbit’s Hole. It was dug through the mudstone with jack hammers fired by steam compressors in 1935, a recent advance on picks and shovels at the time. There is a fast descent from the tunnel into Whangamomona, the halfway point of the highway and my overnight stop at the end of the first day. Whangamomona was built at the end of the nineteenth century as a forestry town, served by the railway line from Stratford. It was a quite sizeable town up until the First World War, when a large number of its young men enlisted. Over fifty of them never returned. The large War Memorial hall lists their names on honours boards to recognise their role in the war.
Nowadays visitors are greeted by a large red sign just outside the settlement which announces arrival in the Republic. In 1989 the locals became frustrated about a revision of district boundaries which shifted Whangamomona from Taranaki to Manawatu. They declared their independence, printed passports, issued stamps, and chose a date in January as Republic Day. Local sports – sheep racing, gumboot throwing, shoot-outs – attract many visitors and a presidential election is held. Billy Gumboot the Goat has held the office as has Tai the Poodle. The current president is Vicky Pratt, publican with husband Richard, who was working hard in the hotel kitchen when elected, oblivious to her elevation. Republic Day is a busy, and no doubt lucrative, day for the pub.
Richard and Vicky are friendly hosts at the hotel which bears the title “home of the republic”. The interior walls of the pub testify to Richard’s strong interest in the history of the area. A photo of the town in 1912 caught my eye: the original hotel on the right, the railway line running down the middle of the only street, the steam pouring out of the sawmills. He tells me that Whangamomona has just ten permanent inhabitants at present, but seventy beds to accommodate visitors.
I arrive in Stratford next day and the following morning join up with a group to make the return journey to Taumarunui up the railway line. The Stratford to Okahukura line is 144 km long. It was constructed between 1901 and 1932 to link the Wellington – New Plymouth line with the North Island main trunk line. Fifteen stations were constructed along its length as well as 24 tunnels and 91 bridges, testament to the difficulty of building railway track through this mountainous landscape. The line provided an alternative route from Auckland to Wellington in case the main trunk line was closed in the centre of the North Island, as happened after the Tangiwai bridge disaster in 1953. It was used to haul timber and coal out of the King Country. It also linked New Plymouth and Auckland; a railcar service ran daily from 1956 to 1983.
After the line was mothballed in 2009, Forgotten World Adventures acquired sole rights to use the line for thirty years. The company has built golf carts attached to railway bogies to operate the line as a tourist venture. I am assigned a seat in the front cart alongside our guide, Ray, and end up driving it most of the way. Ray is a genial gent and local identity: now aged 75, he has lived most of his life in Taumarunui, built many houses in the area, and delivered mail throughout the King Country. He knows the whole region intimately well and is instantly recognised by everyone we meet.
We start out through flat Taranaki dairy country on a beautiful morning. The kindergarten children at Toko come out to meet us and we stop for morning tea by the old brickworks at Douglas. Riding in the front cart has the advantage that Ray and I see all the bird life on the line before it flies off startled by our intrusion. We also have to clear some stray farm animals from the track. Fruit-laden trees border the line – passengers used to throw their apple cores out the train windows. Remnants of former stations, sidings, derelict railway buildings and sheep pens appear as we make our way inland. Ray has a detailed knowledge of the history and geography of the line; I get the expanded version of the commentary.
The railway line often deviates away from the highway into remote and unpopulated corners of the country. The Tangarakau gorge is too narrow to accommodate both road and railway, so the line passes through bush and forest some distance south of the gorge. The little settlement of Tangarakau housed the construction workers a century ago: working conditions along this section of track where bridges and tunnels succeed one another were harsh, particularly in winter. Apart from occasional beehives and a couple of deer hunters, there is no sign of human activity here. The railway line provides the only access to the area.
Our small train of carts crosses over several trestle bridges that we would not notice unless pointed out to us by Ray. The trestles, made from local timber, were built to span valleys between tunnels. The spoil from the tunnels was then tipped over the wooden trestles until the wooden framework disappeared from sight and a causeway was created. This method of construction was not common, but these bridges are very strong and still stand solidly.
The line emerges from the forest on to a rich agricultural plain around Ohura before passing through the last and longest tunnel. Our trip comes to its end just north of Taumarunui at Okahukura, the junction with the main trunk line.
This rail journey has been a chance to see beautiful parts of the country that we would not otherwise have been able to visit. I am reminded that there are still many wild untouched parts of New Zealand to be seen and enjoyed.
March 2021
