Rosie and The Operator still have a week of holidays left to enjoy, the skies have cleared and the road is calling. Time to go a little further afield than the home patch. It has been about 15 years since we last travelled the Forgotten Highway, back then it was like a right of passage, endure the winding road at pace to Whangamomona, destination, the pub. Drink all you can in the basic surroundings crash the night in their dusty backpacker style accommodation and limp home again the next day. Lets see what has changed…..
Our mode of transport has changed for one thing…the camper is laden with cheese and crackers and the fridge is stocked with wine. Rosie loves the high ride aspect of the wee Mitsi truck looking down on the cars and into peoples yards. The Operator on the other hand longs for a turbo so he can at least hold 100kms on the open road….
Leaving Stratford behind and starting along the Forgotten Highway was like turning the clock back in time, the road narrowed, the trees crowded over enclosing you in a cocoon, the road started to wind and Rosie would have loved to have taken photos but she was too busy looking left and right absorbing the fleeting images as they flashed past the window corner after corner.
The little black, horned goat tied on the roadside was standing on the roof of her rusty corrugated iron house, her head moved watching me as I was watching her. A young girl was setting up a vegetable stand on the side of the road, the layers and colours of her veges were fantastic, self service of course with an honesty box on a table. The riot of colour from the beautiful summer flower borders of the farmhouses as they tumbled, some tended some wild down to the roadside. The road however was too narrow and thin and the corners to frequent to safely stop and record….
The switchbacks were treacherous as we climbed the saddles…for the gearbox of the camper that was, The Operator had her in second and she was fair pulling! We were always rewarded at the top of the climb though with areas to pull in (to let other cars past us) and get
a beauty picture of the vista that spread before us. It really made you appreciate the back breaking work put in by the settlers over a hundred years ago as they tried to tame this wild landscape by clearing the native bush that totally covered it to make it suitable for livestock farming. The landscape is hilly and the flat land at the bottom is all swampy from the water runoff of the hills, bummer!
All of a sudden the road straightened and we were were approaching Whangamomona, the only independent Republic in New Zealand. This status was declared after a disagreement with local body government who wanted to change the boundaries of the wee town. Sick of being pushed around they declared themselves independent and even have democratic presidential elections….the last president of the republic was a goat, there was controversy over the validity of the election as the goat did eat all the oppositions votes….
Tai Poutu was the next President, this poodle however did step down after an assassination attempt on his life and the new President is actually a human Murt ‘the turtle’ Kennard. The town celebrates a republic day every two years where all incomers need a passport to the republic and are issued in military style pomp and ceremony. Republic Day is legendary and all based around the pub as the hub of the community, there is gumboot throwing competitions, whip cracking and sheep racing where you can wager a bet or too.
An ‘outhouse’ is positioned at all the entries into Whanga. These are the official passport control stations on Republic Day. Driving into the town proper and seeing the pub and the main street for the first time in over a decade, Rosie and the Operator were surprised….what a tidy wee place it has become, it is not ‘forgotten’ anymore but has undergone a total rejuvenation with face lift to match.
The pub has had a lick of paint and the once rickety perilous veranda no doubt now meets all Health and Safety codes. Lines have been painted on the road and footpaths are newly laid on either sides of the road. Everything is spruced up and shiny, nothing is timeworn and mossy anymore…whereas you used to pull into the town and feel you have travelled back in time, the town is now up with the times…Rosie and the Operator had one of the best Flat Whites we have ever had at the clean, neat and sanitised Hotel. The operators of the pub were very efficient but lacked the back water friendliness and hospitality that is essential to this place to make it special…the Hotel is for sale…. http://www.whangamomonahotel.co.nz/ Rosie and the Operator are thinking of trekking back another day and spending the night at the campground round the corner to experience a meal and an evening of hospitality, the menu looked great and the burgers coming out were huge!
Rosie and The Operator wandered around the village and took a few snaps to give you an idea of the quirky off kilter ambiance of the place….4 mins later this is what I came up with…..
The next part of the journey is uncharted for Rosie
and The Operator, the push through to Taumarunui….giddying saddles await and the legendary ‘unsealed road’…How bad will it be?
