In the morning we backtracked to Raehiti and then hit some dirt roads. Ripper morning.
From Taihape I was told that the road to Napier via Gentle Annie was all sealed now, although it showed as dirt of my map. Never mind, my GPS had other ideas. It directed us a quicker way to Napier, which joined the Gentle Annie road about 55km west of Taihape. This road had about 30km of dirt and some spectacular views.
If the damn grass was green like it was supposed to be, you'd be able to see the road we came up winding it's way along the entire length of this valley.
I was planning to stay in Napier, but coudln't find any accommodation within about 50km of the place. Turns out the "Horse of the year" was on that weekend. Instead we headed south to Dannevirke for the night.