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NZ_2019...The Missing Link
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- Start date
What a pile of volcanic rubble....now pulling its shroud again.
Time to leave, there's just a little unease about the place.
A couple of shots around Raurimu along the SH4 in the vain search for some railway-spiral...
...before another short search for the "slip-in" into Hikumutu Rd. in the small town of Owhango.
Yep, found that one!
Time to leave, there's just a little unease about the place.
A couple of shots around Raurimu along the SH4 in the vain search for some railway-spiral...
...before another short search for the "slip-in" into Hikumutu Rd. in the small town of Owhango.
Yep, found that one!
And thus starts a highly enjoyable couple of afternoon hours that will deliver is to Tauramunui...via the backblocks!
They're just widening the road for us...
Hikumutu Rd. is turning into a cracker the further west we get...
The Upper/ Middle Whanganui River, where it kinks from it's east-west Taranaki leg and runs south past the Bridge to Nowhere, Pipiriki and down into the ocean at Whanganui.
They're just widening the road for us...
Hikumutu Rd. is turning into a cracker the further west we get...
The Upper/ Middle Whanganui River, where it kinks from it's east-west Taranaki leg and runs south past the Bridge to Nowhere, Pipiriki and down into the ocean at Whanganui.
As mentioned above...
...the Home away from Home.
A hasty booking.com search the night before had produced a freshly listed place, a B+B just at the edge of town. Little did we know that we'd be welcomed like long-lost family!
https://www.rangaroa-heights.com/ for the direct contact...or find them on booking.com.
Beautiful place...in the most gorgeous setting, close to town but out-in-the-sticks at the same time. Then add the most friendly and genuine hosts you could think of.
Crowning the whole affair was the home-cooked Venison Shepherd's Pie, a bottle or 2, lots of laughs and plenty of talk.
Repeat for breakfast!
A BIG THANKS to Helen and Tony, wish we'd had more time to stick around longer.
:bow:
...and then the nibblies came out !!
Ant nipped off for a quick look around Tauramunui
(LOVE your pics, mate !!)
....and for that venison pie you really have to book yourself in.....DEVINE!!
...the Home away from Home.
A hasty booking.com search the night before had produced a freshly listed place, a B+B just at the edge of town. Little did we know that we'd be welcomed like long-lost family!
https://www.rangaroa-heights.com/ for the direct contact...or find them on booking.com.
Beautiful place...in the most gorgeous setting, close to town but out-in-the-sticks at the same time. Then add the most friendly and genuine hosts you could think of.
Crowning the whole affair was the home-cooked Venison Shepherd's Pie, a bottle or 2, lots of laughs and plenty of talk.
Repeat for breakfast!
A BIG THANKS to Helen and Tony, wish we'd had more time to stick around longer.
:bow:
...and then the nibblies came out !!
Ant nipped off for a quick look around Tauramunui
(LOVE your pics, mate !!)
....and for that venison pie you really have to book yourself in.....DEVINE!!
The ties are still there...railway-town Taumarunui shows its best side.
With hosts like Helen and Tony this was never going to be an early departure... but, like the night before, a highly enjoyable one.
Thanks for a fantastic stay!
The leisurely cruise of Kururau Rd., swapping asphalt for gravel every so often while following the lines of autumn-coloured poplars framed by the low hills either side is a delight.
If the weather holds, this will be another fabulous Taranaki-day, like many before it. No rush, no pressure...just slowly drifting west while trying to soak up the pictures as a whole.
From the blue skies above to the leaves under the tyres....and EVERYTHING in between.
With hosts like Helen and Tony this was never going to be an early departure... but, like the night before, a highly enjoyable one.
Thanks for a fantastic stay!
The leisurely cruise of Kururau Rd., swapping asphalt for gravel every so often while following the lines of autumn-coloured poplars framed by the low hills either side is a delight.
If the weather holds, this will be another fabulous Taranaki-day, like many before it. No rush, no pressure...just slowly drifting west while trying to soak up the pictures as a whole.
From the blue skies above to the leaves under the tyres....and EVERYTHING in between.
MAGIC MORNING MAP!
https://isn.page.link/1gme
A bag of snappy twisties and some sweepers of the Forgotten World Highway, then tacking north on Moki Rd. to check out Dempster Falls.
It's most certainly worth the stop and short walk...and quite something at its 74m drop!
https://isn.page.link/1gme
A bag of snappy twisties and some sweepers of the Forgotten World Highway, then tacking north on Moki Rd. to check out Dempster Falls.
It's most certainly worth the stop and short walk...and quite something at its 74m drop!
Without any signs around I overshoot the Kiwi Rd. turnoff but notice the "bush-track" leading into the greenery...time to get back to that after the odo keeps rolling way past what my notes tell me. What's up with Kiwi Rd. then?
a) it's supposed to be tight, a little rough around the edges, prone to slips after rain and a bastard to ride when wet
b) it's also deemed non-essential to the local road network and slated to be closed in the not too distant future to save maintenance costs
SHOWTIME!!!
bb
a) it's supposed to be tight, a little rough around the edges, prone to slips after rain and a bastard to ride when wet
b) it's also deemed non-essential to the local road network and slated to be closed in the not too distant future to save maintenance costs
SHOWTIME!!!
bb
Let's go through again...just for the hell of it, aye?
Orrite...time to pack up and zigzag some more gravel up to the coast...and lunch at Urenui.
Oh man...this is just awesome!!
Yep, they're all over the place here...another just up the road from the Kiwi Rd. Tunnel
(Moki Rd., from memory)
Yet another little gem...Kaka Rd., just east of Okoki.
The (Tara-) "Naki" just keeps giving!!
Time to go for air at the Mud Bay Cafe in Urenui, top up the tanks to the absolute brim to have enough fuel to get us through the afternoon AND back out of the 'Naki and into Piopio the next morning without a time-sapping fuel-run.
The 4Square Supermarket next door is also quite well stocked to look after the required shopping for dinner and brecky in the middle of no-where
When route-planning the 2week NZ loop for a troupe of then-6, things kept hitting the wall around this area.
Plenty of accom choices (and bearable prices) around the edges...Taumarunui/ Stratford or along the coast to the north... but virtually nothing around the center but Whangamamona.
And "Whanga" charges like wounded bulls!
Then there is no fuel right along that SH43/ Forgotton World Hwy nor any of its offshoots.
There's a school-camp type of thing at Te Wera which I kept coming back to.
BYO supplies, not too far from fuel to make it out of the general area the next day...but no replies to emails/ phone calls.
Then booking.com threw up the " Mill House", a then-new listing of a renovated 1900's farmhouse along the SH43 aka FWH (Forgotton World Highway) 10k's west of Whangamamona.
A quick email resulted in the offer of a leg-'o-lamb dinner for the crew from their own farm + garden @ $25/ head....if nothing else, that alone sealed the deal.
With enough beds and dinner sorted, I worked out the distances and fuel requirements and figured we'd make it out of the 'Naki and into Piopio the next morning if going easy on the throttle and no "shit happened".
Not quite my usual MO, but the best available.
Nail it!
Urenui had to come up with the rest then...and it did.
The Mill House (Amanda):
https://www.facebook.com/millhouse15/
Booking. com : https://isn.page.link/X8Bd
Off the coastal highway in a jiffy...
MAGIC AFTERNOON MAP:
https://isn.page.link/JtEr
...to check out the historic Bertrand Rd. bridge, saved from "upgrading" by the local folks initiating a community project. Good on 'em!
The Everett & Tarata Rd. combo turns out a magic rollercoaster... a totally deserted band-of-tar singing + swinging through the rural backblocks to the Waitara River bridge at Purangi.
Continuing the drift west now on gravel, Junction Rd. continues the theme of "GREEN"-overload of farming hills and dales broken by big swathes of timber plantations.
