Travelling the Forgotten Highway

Today we set out on the mammoth drive down the Forgotten Highway inland towards the Tongariro National Park. I'm not sure why it's called the Forgotten Highway, it may just be less used than other routes that have been created since. We didn't pass many other cars so it does seem that way. We had a slight detour at the start because work is being done on a bridge but luckily it wasn't too much of an issue to get around. Pretty quickly we began to climb up a road that hugged the hill side and got some lovely views of the rolling hills with Taranaki in the faint distance. The hilly landscape with luscious green grass felt as if we were entering into the Shire. It's crazy to think that before European settlers came this whole area would have been covered in native bush. Most of the highway ran alongside an old railway line that was used back in the day. The road took us up and down hills with every twist and bend giving us another great view of the farmland and forests. At one point I saw two parrot like birds fly across our path and land in a tree. I double backed to show Nick but unfortunately they flew off before we got there. I'm not totally sure he believes what I saw now! One hill must of proved too hard to build a road up and down because we had to drive through a 3m by 4.5m tunnel. It was rather narrow and very old fashioned looking but that added to the charm of the whole experience. There was a section of gravel road about 16km long through gorgeous rainforest. Although the road had a few potholes it definitely wasn't a bad gravel road to drive on. Lichen covered a lot of the worn fence posts to all the farms we passed which did add to the whole "forgotten" concept. Maybe that's how it did get it's name but who knows. All we know is it was a very long drive but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We eventually made it to the town of Taumarunui at the other end of the highway stretch. We weren't totally sure what there is to do around here so after grabbing a couple of coffees we visited the i-site for some inspiration. We had parked in a campervan designated carpark but the area and the whole town had an unfriendly dodgey vibe to it so we made sure we were back at the van quickly which I'm glad about because when we returned we noticed broken car window glass on the floor from a previous vehicle. Unfortunately the weather for the next week is looking pretty bad so the information centre recommended doing an early morning walk before the rain set in. I'm not sure either of us are fancying that after such a long drive today so instead we might just head up to Taupo and rely on Campermate to tell us when there's a stop worth making. For tonight we are staying in a DOC paid campsite in the bush. Hedges and greenery surround each available bay so it's a nice and private which is good. We're pretty close to Mount Doom, aka Mount Ngauruhoe, here so hopefully we can see more of that in the sunlight tomorrow. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing great day walk is in this national park near by and is meant to be the best day hike in NZ. It's only now doable with a guide because of the weather and is apparently very icy and covered in snow. Because of the weather I think we will add that to the list of things to do in summer. It'd be a shame to so a whole day hike and everything there is to see is blocked from view because you're inside a cloud!Read more