MOTORIST “FINDS” MOKI

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1935, Page 3

MOTORIST “FINDS” MOKI

FIRST TRIP INTO EAST DISTRICT USUALLY NEGLECTED. SCENERY IN CLASS OF ITS OWN. Many Taranaki motorists scour the North Island in search of fresh scenic trips yet at their very back door they have one of the most interesting and attractive drives that could be found any - where—at any rate that is the opinion ■ of a Stratford motorist who recently drove to Tahora and walked through the Moki tunnel and down the saddle on the northern side to the entrance to the gorge. “It took Taranaki people as a whole a long time to discover Mt. Egmont and I expect many will never drive over Ohura Road; they will miss something that has no exact counterpart anywhere in New Zealand.” At various times, he continued, he had heard people speak of the scenery of the saddles and of the Tangarakau gorge and he had always intended to do the trip but somehow till the other day he had not realised his resolve—there seemed so many other places to go without diving off the beaten track and moreover what he had heard about the road had not encouraged him, the unmetalled portion over the Moki saddle and through the gorge having always loomed in his mind as a bogey that imagination magnified to such an .extent that he was chary to investigate it at first hand. “Now I have seen it and it no longer presents any obstacle to me,” he said. “On this occasion I had no chains and did not attempt to drive over the'Moki saddle, the first part of which has been cut up by traffic to and from the tunnel during the wet weather, but during the summer I will certainly go out again an'’ do the trip to Ohura.” OPENED HIS EYES. . He had been as far as Douglas before and imagined that he had seen all there was to see of Stratford’s eastern districts but this trip had opened his eyes. As soon as one climbed to the top of the hill east of Douglas the country changed remarkably. From a farming viewpoint the change might not be for the better but for the motorist there was a distinct charm in penetrating country of a type that he had not thought existed in Taranaki. He was surprised at the good surface of the road over the Strathmore saddle, having been of the opinion that it was rough. Some of the bends were sharp but the grade was easy and, though it was his first experience of hill driving of that nature, he did not find it fraught with the anxiety that he had been led to believe he would. In fact he enjoyed it, a brief halt at the top of the saddle giving him a panoramic view of fertile valley and towering ridges. ' » From the foot of the saddle to Strathmore the road surface was rougher than on the saddle but still quite a fair surface and he found »the Government section of the road from Strathmore to Pohokura “as smooth as a billiard table” and an example of the perfect surface that could be attained by proper maintepance methods on a correct foundation. “I would far rather drive on that than on the wavy bitumen surfaced roads of the more closely settled parts of the province,” he remarked. Pohokura saddle was not so long as Strathmore and the bush was pretty but he was enraptured at the virgin bush on the Whangamomona saddle. Manypeople, he thought, would drive over the road in. a closed car and miss natural beauty that was in a class of its own. He took the trouble to stop several times on the way over the saddle and ( admired the magnificent bush that clothed the steep hillsides and reached up from the deep gullies. LINK WITH EARLY DAYS.

The township of Whangamomona, set on a small flat amidst the hills, was intriguing and seemed to have that indefinable link with the early days of the province, some of the .spirit that took the pioneers there and urged them .still further into the backblocks was dis-cernible-ephemeral perhaps but tangible if one cared to let imagination rove down past and almost forgotten years. A few miles further on, the Kohujratahi district with its more rounded contours and well cultivated pastures provided a refreshing change from the steeper and rougher country of the intermediate districts. The top of the Tahbra saddle unfolded another vista of serrated ridges eclipsing that of the Strathmore saddle. Here and there the railway could be picked out as a silver ribbon at the bottom of a valley threading a way through country that presents ed a veritable mass of barriers to railway construction. It was amazing to find the railway cropping up from time to time to remind one that even such an apparently remote area was well served with transport facilities. “When I walked through the slush oi that first half-mile of road up to the Moki tunnel I must admit I was dubi-. ous about ever venturing over it by car,” the motorist confessed, “but, when X found how good the road was above the tunnel and on the northern side of tlie saddle where the sun had been on it all morning, my qualms ceased.” ■ He said it was evident that the first bad stretch was due to the traffic to and from the tunnel using the road during the wet weather and when he was told by one of the workmen that .the winter had been exceptional he could see that he would have no trouble after a dry spell or once the tunnel was completed. Apart from a few corners that were in the shade the northern side of the saddle road could have been negotiated without chains and the road in the gorge, though shaded by the bush, was in excellent order. “I went no further than the entrance to the gorge but I could see that the re-, ports I had heard of the beauty of the gorge were not exaggerated; I could not do justice to it with mere words but I intend to make its closer acquaintance as soon as better weather sets in,” he concluded.