TARANAKI’S OPPORTUNITY

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

TARANAKI’S OPPORTUNITY

PLANNED ROUTE FOR TOURISTS.

WHAT EASTERN ACCESS MEANS.

(By

“Spotlight.”)

If Taranaki, as a venue for tourists, cannot reckon upon more than a microscopic selection of .oversea visitors, it may gain in another direction, for it will have at its command next year the means of attracting an infinitely greater number of touring motorists than has been the general experience in the past. A sprinkling of motorists all over the Dominion are fully alive to the facilities offered to holidaymakers in Taranaki. They are already appreciative of the good roads and the wealth of diversion which the province can offer in scenery, that ranges from popular beaches to a magnificent mountain prospect. Next year Taranaki will have something more. It will have‘a new road, passing through new country containing a new type of scenery and new experiences. Touring motorists, travelling with or without tents, have been on the roads for so many years now that the majority have exhausted the thrill of routes and places now grown familiar. They are, to-day, eagerly searching out new avenues, and each year adds an increasing number planning tours of exploration through less known localities. That this is so is evidenced by the sudden popularity of the Rotorua-Waikare-moana-Wairoa road which has been available to tourists as a motor, road scarcely two years. It became popular because it was new and because it traversed new country. THE EASTERN PORTAL. By next summer it is anticipated that the Moki saddle will be pierced by a good road tunnel, thus removing one of the chief obstacles to the choice of the Taumarunui-Tangarakau Gorge-Whan-gamomona-Stratford highway as a drive of unsurpassed loveliness by which a motorist can enter the province. Moreover, about this time another obstacle will disappear through the metalling of three miles of the Paparata slope which guards the eastern entrance of the gorge as the Moki does the western. The drive from Rotorua, that mecca of most tourists, to Taupo is already famous. The inducement should then be held out to holidaymakers from the north to circle the lake to Taupo and proceed thence on to the Chateau. From the Chateau an unusual type of country lies along the route to Taumarunui, but most tourists have in the past preferred to wind down the tortuous Parapara Road into Wanganui and so continue their journey' southward. It is at this point that the claims of the eastern portal to Taranaki should be urged to , the fullest possible extent. If traffic can be directed from the Chateau to Taumarunui, a most interesting touring experience then awaits the traveller as he passes on where Taranaki people desire him to go—to Taranaki. ADVERTISE THE NEW ROUTE. ' The idea from Taranaki’s point of view should be to give the utmost publicity throughout New Zealand to the following touring itinerary:—Cars from the north to make for Taumarunui and enter Taranaki by the wonderful 98 mile, drive which includes eleven miles along the Wanganui river, fourteen miles through the famous Tangarakau Gorge and the passage of the easily graded, but very beautiful, Tahora, Whangamomona and Strathmore saddles. This is an easy day’s tour, and, at Stratford, there is waiting one of the finest camping sites in the North Island. It has modem conveniences built especially for camps, is completely encircled by sheltering trees and has bathing facilities in the river which flows along one side before ; meandering through Stratford’s King Edward Park. The • camp site is really part of the park. Camping tourists should pitch in Stratford for the night, and, the following day, make the nine mile trip to the Stratford Plateau road, where they can motor to 4000 feet above sea level and see nearly, eighty square miles of New Zealand spread out like a draughtsman’s map at their feet. Apart from this wonderful view, there is a native bush drive from the radius line and the points of interest to be visited in the vicinity of the accommodation houses. After experiencing the unique sensation of reaching the top of the highest motor road in the Dominion, the next leg of the tour Should take the car to New Plymouth 26 miles away, where the motor camp at Belt Road on the sea shore is too well-known to need description. New Plymouth offers the visitor enough attractions, not to be encountered elsewhere, to keep a party thoroughly occupied for several days. The Plateau road at Stratford, and Pukekura Park at New Plymouth with all that this delightful spot offers, should be a feature to which emphasis could well be given in any publicity undertaken. After New Plymouth, there is a choice of routes. If the tourist proposes returning north he will travel the beautiful well laid coastal highway—the main north road from Wellington to Auckland. If, on the other hand, he wishes to push further south, then the route to which his attention should be drawn will be the Opunake circuit round the coast to Hawera. At Opunake, it should be indicated that the trip to Kaponga and thence to Dawson Falls, where there is a rather different and even more impressive type of mountain scenery, will more than repay a visit. Both at Eltham and at Hawera camp sites far above the general run of such modern establishments are available. CHIEF “SELLING” POINT. As the route into Taranaki will be the chief “selling” point in such publicity as the Taranaki Automobile Association or other organisations may care to devise, some details of the road and its interests might not be out of place. But first, the suggestion is made that, in order to attract the interest of motorists. a descriptive road guide, such as is issued by the Auckland Automobile Association and are so eagerly sought after by motorists* about to embark on a trip they have never done before, should be prepared and made available all. over the Dominion. . Leaving Taumarunui a recently formed, graded and metalled highway follows the course of the Wanganui river for about eleven miles, then plunges into a semi developed district dotted with vistas of bush and farm land. Here the road is easily travelled, there being no sudden corners or any hills worthy of consideration. The motorist may pass into Tokirima without being aware of the fact, but the sight of the railway will prove a diversion. The last four miles before the road he is travelling junctions with the main Ohura road will be found rather hilly, but the surface is good and the grades easy. From, the junction there is a pleasant run’ 1 through the Tatu district before the Paparata saddle is climbed. This hill has been metalled for several years. In quarters it still enjoys a reputation justly earned in the days of mud when curves were curves and grades were killers, but to-day it is nothing to be

alarmed about. A descent by a slowly dipping road is then made into the famous Tangarakau Gorge. This is where gangs are at present engaged in spreading metal. The main length of the gorge, extending some eleven miles beyond the point to which metal will reach by next summer, has a good solid 'formation. Though it is unmetalled at present it is quite good for travelling. The gorge road itself seldom becomes impassable even after prolonged and heavy rain, It is practically level going all the way. The tourist has now reached the spot to which the fullest publicity can be given. There are few drives in New Zealand that can equal the Tangarakau Gorge, and' none that can surpass it. It is an attraction which motorists, once its beauty and its grandeur become known, will not be disposed to miss. They will want to see this wonderful revelation of nature and having. seen it, > will not be disappointed. Their car will glide easily .through a natural avenue of tall tree ferns striking upward from a riot of vegetation. At one side, and never far away, flows the turbid Tangarakau river, the stimulus to the growth of so many varieties of tree shrub and vine. Throughout the drive the bush clad sides of the great gorge tower to hundreds of feet, leaving only a narrow strip of sky visible through the leafy canopy that shadows the road. Midway the river is crossed and the rabbitproof gate religiously closed. This is one of many excellent spots for a picnic lunch, and has in addition a historic background of a tragic death and a heroic journey. Visitors will find material for a little serious thought when they contemplate the grave of the surveyor Morgan, and read what they will find written on the notice board in the vicinity.

A little further on the road, still shaded by verdant forest, passes the Egmont Collieries and a mile or so more sees the end of the gorge. To-day the Moki saddle has to be climbed before Tahora is reached, but next summer the tourist will probably roll carefully through a long tunnel and wonder what all the Moki fuss, has been about. ‘ Tahora and a good metalled road will be just beyond the tunnel. Here the railway is met again only to be lost as the car mounts Tahora saddle, from the top of which a wonderful panorama can be obtained. Whangamomona and a hotel lie a bare twelve’miles from Tahora. After leaving Whangamomona, a town?ship with a history, another treat is in store. This is the ascent and descent of the scenic reserve known as the Whangamomona saddle. The road is so well graded here that even tire driver may catch glimpses of the magnificent primal forest through which he is passing. In the Tangarakau Gorge all the scenery was at the eye level or above. On the Whangamomona saddle it is spread over miles of bush, with ridges to be looked over and valleys to be peered into. It may be advisable to drop the car into second gear for the climb, but most usei of this road negotiate it fairly easily on “top.” It is 40 miles from Whangamomona to Stratford, and the road is so good that an hour and a half, or perhaps three quarters, should suffice. It is an interesting journey starting with rough hill farms on either side of the road but progressing in development as the miles fly beneath the wheels. From Douglas, a thriving township 12 miles out of S’ratford, the road is bituminised. Altogether, from Taumarunui, the journey into the heart of Taranaki at Stratford is only 98 miles, and the drive is such that it is bound to become one of the most popular motor tours of the North Island.