Nicola McCloy drives the Forgotten World Highway from Stratford to Taumarunui on the back roads.
I'm not going to lie, I was pretty bummed that we missed out on visiting the Manutahi Museum, with its impressive collection of taxidermy. Apparently it's not only New Zealand's largest collection of taxidermy, but also one of the largest collections in the world — and all in the Taranaki town of Lepperton. It's only open on the weekends, and as we were in town during the week we missed our chance (which suited Jane perfectly as she's an animal lover — and I don't mean of the stuffed variety).
Instead, we made our way to Inglewood and fulfilled a long-held dream of mine — a visit to the Fun Ho! National Toy Museum. Now, if you're a millennial, that is entirely not what it sounds like. Back in the olden days, "fun ho" did not have any transactional connotations. It was merely a good name for a company making New Zealand's best cast-metal toys.
The museum houses more than 3000 Fun Ho! toys as well as being home to the casting room where new toys are made, and fascinating displays of old casts and moulds. The company first produced metal toys in the 1930s and they're probably best known for their model cars, tractors and trucks. As the museum collection shows, the breadth of their range is tremendous. It includes doll's house furniture, right down to baths and toilets, money boxes shaped like jolly policemen, and even knucklebones.
From Inglewood, we went south to Stratford — sadly, we missed the playing of the town's famous glockenspiel clock tower, the only one of its kind in New Zealand — where we turned on to State Highway 43, otherwise known as the Forgotten World Highway. Ahead of us we knew were four saddles, a lot of bends, a famous pub and a gravel road — but we found there was so much more.
The first part of the drive is through flat, verdant Taranaki farmland, then the road gradually winds up into the hills. Along the way, villages dot the route, with old dairy factories hinting at a key part of the area's history.
As we began to climb we found ourselves at the summit of the first of the four saddles on this route. A sign at the top of the Strathmore Saddle told us we were at the start of what has traditionally been considered "the back country". It felt like it, too, as the rolling hills gave way to steeper banks and the dairy cattle were slowly replaced with sheep. Apparently, on a clear day you can see the four big North Island mountains — Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe, Ruapehu and Taranaki — from here.
As you drive further and further from mobile network coverage, it becomes easier to imagine what it must have been like for the settlers who came to farm this place in the late 1800s, and then again for the battle-scarred men who drew land lots here in the ballot after World War I. This is land that clearly wouldn't be tamed easily — if at all. There are still farms on this side of Whangamōmona, bearing testament to the hardiness of the people who live here. There's also evidence along the road of settlements that didn't last, which speak of the people who couldn't or didn't stay.
With two more saddles climbed and descended (Pohokura and Whangamōmona, to be specific), we were pretty happy to roll down the hill into the Republic of Whangamōmona. I'd heard so much about this place, I was super-excited to finally visit it. And I wasn't disappointed.
This most excellent pocket of self-government declared itself independent from the rest of New Zealand in 1989, when some bureaucrats decided to move it from Taranaki to Manawatū-Wanganui. I mean, not literally move it (although nothing would surprise me ...) but redraw the regional boundaries so it was no longer part of Taranaki as it had historically been.
Lauren's Lavender Farm. Photo / Supplied
On November 1, 1989, the people declared themselves the Republic of Whangamōmona. The revolution is marked by Republic Day in January and a presidential election is held. At the time of writing, there have been four human presidents, as well as Billy Gumboot the goat and Tai the poodle, who survived a politically motivated assassination attempt by a large mastiff but had to step down to recover from his injuries.
It's not hard to see that pretty much all of life in this isolated town revolves around the local pub, the Whangamōmona Hotel. This iteration of the hotel was built in 1911 to replace an earlier one that had been burnt down. By the 1980s, the place was looking pretty neglected and it took a heck of a lot of renovation and restoration to bring it back to its current glory.
When we arrived, there were a bunch of bikies sunning themselves out front, while a European tourist desperately tried to order his glamorous partner a very specific fruit-based drink that no one could quite understand. Having done his best, the barman shrugged and told us he'd tried out his French (which was pretty decent) but he had no idea how to speak "Croanian or whatever that was ..."
Such is the popularity of this route with overseas tourists that even Whangamōmona has become a little bit cosmopolitan. We ordered handles of cranberry juice and a (huge and delicious) platter then headed out the back to a rather lovely beer garden. We were soon joined by a large group of Scandinavian travellers who partook of not only the food and drink on offer — most of them were soon proudly wearing Whangamōmona Hotel T-shirts and singlets.
Truth be told, I kind of wish we'd booked a couple of rooms at the hotel and settled in for the night. It's the kind of pub that you walk into and instantly feel at home; definitely not one of those country pubs where you feel everyone quietly staring at you as you swiftly neck your pint and get the hell out.
With no room booked and more miles to cover, we had a wander around the town and, a bit sadly, got back on the road.
The road out of town meanders along the Whangamōmona River and the railway line. That is until you get to the fourth saddle for the day — the Tahora. At the nearby Tahora township, there's a right-hand turn that will take you down Raekohua Rd, should you want to explore what little remains of the Tāngarākau township that served the railway builders so well.
Not long after passing through Tahora came a more intriguing challenge — the Moki tunnel. This single-lane road tunnel, which we didn't have right of way on so got to inspect at close quarters while we waited for about five campervans to come through, is quite a feat of engineering. Like much of the railway here, it was carved out by hand. Well, hands with pickaxes. That might not sound impressive except for the fact that it's 500m long. In New Zild parlance, that's the same as five rugby fields laid end to end. Bloody impressive.
Once through the tunnel, we dropped down into the Tāngarākau Gorge. The road follows the river that gives its name to the gorge it created, and your passengers will get plenty of time to admire it as you drive along a very narrow gravel road. It's a slow 15km and it takes a bit of concentration, but the bush and the river make for a spectacularly beautiful setting that couldn't be more different from the grassy hills that made up the first half of this drive.
About halfway along the gorge road, you'll see a turn-off that leads up to Mount Damper Falls. I found this a bit confusing as the same falls are signposted from near Tongapōrutu, just out of New Plymouth.
Looking at a map, I realise now just how close we were to the road we'd driven along the previous day.
When the road finally leaves the banks of the Tāngarākau River and heads off along the Paparata Stream, there's a welcome return to tar-seal, and at Paparata, the forest turns back into farmland. The change in the landscape made me feel like I'd just driven a really long way, when it was only a little over 100km and maybe just a little bit back in time.
Just north of Tatu, there's a choice of roads to take. The more direct one would have taken us through Ōhura and up to SH4 just before Ōngarue, but we decided to stick with Joshua Morgan's fine road and do a bit of a detour to Taumarunui on SH43. It was a very pleasant amble through lovely countryside until we met the Whanganui River just after Aukopae. The road follows the course of the river for quite a while and there are a number of signs offering diversions down side roads that lead to the river and some superb swimming holes.
Cover of 'Let's Get Lost', by Nicola McCloy.
We made one last stop before we got to Taumarunui and that was at Lauren's Lavender Farm. It was one of those moments where I saw the sign and thought "why not?" It turned out we'd timed it perfectly as the whole place was a riot of purple blooms and the air smelled absolutely amazing.
We grabbed a drink in the lovely cafe on site and sat outside watching thousands of bees happily and noisily going about their business. As well as the cafe, Lauren's has a shop where they sell their lavender products. Needless to say, the car smelled a whole lot better for the rest of the trip.
Taumarunui is pretty much famous for one thing — being on the main trunk line. (If you're a certain age — or just a bit of a tragic like me — you'll now have the 1957 Peter Cape song Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line stuck in your head. Sorry.)
It's typically a place where people break their journeys and join the crush in the tearoom for a cup of tea, but Taumarunui should perhaps be better known for some of the journeys that you can start here. One of the real drawcards is the fact that the Whanganui River is so nearby and as such, this is the place where many kayakers and canoeists put to the water to make the multi-day trip down the river.
There's 145km of water and five days of adventures between them and Pipiriki.
Little known fact — Marc and Todd Hunter from Dragon went to high school in Taumarunui. One day in a pub quiz you'll thank me.
• This edited extract is from Let's Get Lost, by Nicola McCloy. Published by Penguin Random House. RRP: $45
