Turangi and Gentle Annie

Its wonderful how many new NZMCA camps are being developed recently.  We stopped for the night at the newly opened Turangi Park.  Formerly a Ministry of Works site, it is a huge area with plenty of room here for members.  On hard standing, so it is an all weather park, water and rubbish are both available, with a dump station pending.  We had a visit from the custodian’s wife, (she does all the work here, not her husband, she told us)  who was delivering the local papers, and she caught us up with all the news of this new park.

Just one night’s stay, then we headed off again in the morning, after the necessary stop at the dump station.  Our group of four vans had agreed to meet up at Waiouru for lunch, and what a long slow journey that was along the Desert Road, held up by several lots of road works.  At one stage we were stopped for about 15 minutes, cars snaking up the rise ahead of us, and many more behind.

At a standstill on the Desert Road

Eventually we pulled into the parking behind the Museum at Waiouru, always a good place to stop for lunch, and vans can also stay overnight free of charge if they wish.

Lunch time at Waiouru

And of course this is a great spot to take a snap of my favourite mountain, Mt Ruapehu.  There was just a few streaks of snow on the slopes, but it is summertime, after all.

Mt Ruapehu from the car park

Well fed and watered, we continued on the last part of our journey, to drive over the Taihape-Napier Road, Gentle Annie.  I did wonder how this road came to be named and Mr Google told me that the road takes it’s name from the descent from the Central Plateau into the Kaweka Forest.  Known historically as Gentle Annie, it is now  lot more gentle on travelers than it used to be.  Some years ago the road was full of sections of rough gravel, but these days the road is sealed all the way.  Terribly narrow and full of bends,  with many mountain ranges to climb up and over, motorists must take their time and drive carefully.  I never did find out if Gentle Annie was a real person.

Start of Gentle Annie

Along the way we passed the Erewhon homestead and farm, the name is “nowhere” spelt backwards, and takes it’s name from Samuel Butler’s book written in 1872.  It does seem to be situated in the middle of nowhere.  In the 1870s Erewhon Station carried 80,000 sheep.  The wool was taken to Napier by packhorses and mules, with a stockman in charge of each team of ten.  What a long slow trip that would have been.

Erewon Station

Our stop for the night was at the free parking site at Springvale Suspension Bridge.  We had to juggle around a bit to find a reasonably level spot each.  A lovely quiet place to spend the evening, but no cell phone or internet coverage out here in the middle of nowhere.

Springvale Suspension Bridge.

This beauty was christened Rangitikei River Bridge no 75 in 1926, and very few examples of this type of suspension bridge remain.  In 1970 the road was realigned and a new bridge built alongside the suspension bridge.  The replacement bridge is functional but very plain compared to it’s beautiful older neighbour.

After a frosty start to the morning we hooked up and continued driving along Gentle Annie towards our next destination of Napier.  The tree cover was a mixture of Pinus Radiata forests, and native trees.  As we finally dropped down into the more gentle land  near Fernhill, we passed by grapes and apple plantations, and hay bales neatly rolled in the paddocks. 

Pinus Radiata forests everywhere