Oh dear – Don and Pamela got a rude awakening this morning. The rain had been pouring down for hours when we noticed that Don had left their driver’s car window down. Robin rushed over to bang on their door to let them know while I rather sneakily got my camera out. Sorry Don, but you did look funny in all that rain. Bet the car was soaking wet inside.
We hitched the caravans up and started on Day 2 of our trip along the Forgotten World Highway. As we left the village a very sensible sign had this advice for us.
We all negotiated the Moki tunnel without any mishap. Just had to stop the car and jump out to take our photo of our car and caravan exiting the Hobbit Hole.
Farmers on the road asked us to stop to let a huge mob of sheep come though so we pulled our vehicles and caravans over to the side of the road. The sheep were absolutely sodden so must have been walking quite some way along the road in the rain. They were quite worried to see this strange lady with a camera standing in the road looking at them, so I quickly stepped back beside the caravan. No, they were still too scared to move. The dogs were let out and soon had them moving along. We came across two more mobs of sheep travelling further up the road so there were plenty of them on the move.
We drove through the lovely Tangarakau Gorge on the only unsealed portion of this road. The rain had eased to a gentle fall and wisps of mist hung at the tops of the hills. This area is pristine and has never been milled, we were told. It was just so beautiful and New Zealand would have been completely covered in trees just like this before the settlers arrived.
The Forgotten World Highway ended at Taumaunui, a total of 150 kms. It was a wonderful drive, one that we had long wanted to do. We had travelled up and over 4 Saddles with spectacular views, through farm land, native forests, tiny little settlements, and of course Whangamomona. It was like a trip back in time, and we thoroughly enjoyed every part of the journey.
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