The journey along SH43 started very tame & I wondered what all the fuss was about.’Never mind, I’m here so I’ll see how this goes’ I thought as I continued along the Forgotten World highway. Given the name of the route, I naively expected to be transported into a magical forgotten world as soon as I turn onto SH 43. But that was not the case, it started off as a normal small town road.
The real journey started after passing through Toko, which is about 12KM into the ride, where the road became more interesting & about another 12KM longer, the ride started to get into the bloody awesome parts of the ride.
The highway weaves through some rugged, beautiful countryside which New Zealand is renowned for. It climbs four saddles; the first is Strathmore Saddle, then the Pohokura Saddle leads you into the Whangamomona Saddle. This saddle is the best part of the ride & is a great way to enter the Whangamomona Republic with its pub standing centre to greet you. I didn’t stop to soak up the environment and I wish I had. Lastly there is the Tahora Saddle. These were some of the best parts of the ride. As soon as I saw a sign with Saddle in it, I mentally yelled hooray and settled into some awesome bends with a few sharp switchbacks. These are the types of roads I love to ride!
The Moki Tunnel was a complete surprise & at first I wasn’t sure if I was on the right road as the tunnel was so different from the road I had been riding. I had not done my research & didn’t know what to expect, which makes things kind of interesting but I know that I can’t always take this cavalier attitude to road trips. Riding into the tunnel, I was confident that it would be an easy ride & it would have been if I didn’t have my sunglasses on. This was easily solved after a quick stop.
What I loved about this tunnel was the feeling of the gold rush days even though it was built in the 1930s. The tunnel reminded me of tunnels I had entered when visiting disused gold mines in the Coromandel area. Structures like these are a part of our pioneering history.
Then there was the unsealed Tangarakau Gorge, yup, you guessed it, another surprise! This part of the journey I had to severely reduce my speed & at times I felt my tyres swim across the surface. Despite this, I still enjoyed it. This was a slow descend into the gorge but the scenery was beautiful. The worst part of this section was needing to stay right in the centre of the road were the lease gravel was. Naturally, this had the potential to become very dangerous as four wheeled vehicles were able to travel at faster speeds than me but each time a vehicle approached, I seemed to have enough warning so I could move to my side of the road.
Having ridden the highway, I am not disappointed that I took this detour. It certainly is another world. I loved that I felt a million miles away from anyone when I had the road to myself. I feel the road was not suitable for camper vans but I’m not sure if that is due to my bias and how annoying I found them on the road with limited passing opportunities.
If you are planning a trip through the Forgotten World Highway, I would seriously recommend it. Here is further information about the highway.
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