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On Wednesday, we left Raglan (in bright sunshine) and drove south to
Taumarunui, stopping briefly for coffee in
Pirongia. We picked up some pies for lunch (yes, there are still pies here in NZ, Tim hasn't eaten them ALL yet!) and then embarked on the 150km drive to
Stratford on Highway 43 - the evocatively named
Forgotten World Highway. At the start of this road there are signs warning that there is no gasoline for the full 150km. The road gets it's name due to fact that it passes through many historically significant sites, some abandoned settlements, coal mines and Maori
pa (fortified villages). 12km of the road is unsealed and passes through a gorge on extremely narrow tracks. We stopped to admire the views from "Nevin's lookout" (sadly, as is the case for the most of the year, the mighty volcanoes in the region were obscured by cloud) and passed through the very narrow, one-car-only "Moki Tunnel" which bears a sign declaring it to be a "Hobbit's Hole". We also passed through the border controls into the
Republic of Whangamomona and stopped for a Whangamomona-brewed beer in the passport office/pub. The history of this town is that in 1988 local
councils upset the residents by trying to redesignate them from the Taranaki region to Manawatu. As a result they declared their independence, elected a president, set up a border control (using a disused outdoor toilet) and consequently celebrate their independence every couple of years - an event that sees the population swell to 5000+ with out-of-towners who flock to celebrate with the locals and enjoy the sheep racing. Once we left SH43 at Stratford we drove north to our next night's backpackers accomodation in
New Plymouth. We had hoped to see the volcano Mount Taranaki on this part of the drive but once again cloud thwarted us.
The next day we drove to
Egmont Village and then up to the lower slopes of
Mount Taranaki (2518m) and parked at 943m. There was no chance of reaching the summit at this time of year without ice axes and crampons (which we had forgotten to pack) but we had hoped to climb to one of the huts at about 1500m. Unforunately, there had been too much rain overnight and some of the rivers that would have to be crossed on the climb were going to be too dangerous to attempt. Instead
we walked the "Veronica loop track" which involved a good bit of climbing through dense cloud and constant rain and we were rewarded by views of dense cloud and constant rain.
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