Whangamomona Trip
13/14 March 2010 as told by Jeff Clarke
 
The weather gods were shining on us. Assembling in Te Kuiti at 7.00 am meant an unholy time to start the day as we all live an hour away. Our 3 trusty steads carried us on our way as we headed toward the republic of Whangamomona.
 
Along the way the caravan stoped to add Steve (Plus Glen riding shotgun) and his truck with the Suzuki piggy backed on it’s deck.
The road itself was amusing as it was only just over one vehicle wide. Yet this hadn’t deterred some budding road marker person painting a white line down the middle in the pretext it was a 2 lane road. Fortunately we didn’t meet a stock truck coming the other way.
The road wound it’s way through the bottom of a mountainous valley.
The valley was both steeped in bush clad cliffs and a sense of history, while at the same time having a presence that somehow made one feel small and insignificant.

The Road to Whangamomona

Arriving at Whangamomona it was apparent that half the town must have been away while the other 2 were still in bed. A brief stop to unload, mount up and up the track we headed.
A flat and smooth dirt road the track was actually classed as public road. Initially a Falcon could have taken it in it’s stride quite comfortably (assuming it didn’t break down!).
Wasn’t long before an opportunity to play in a muddy, boggy ditch presented itself. Some members of the party arose to the occasion. I discovered that my Nissan was happy to stay in the boggy ditch and had to be led away.

Jeff’s truck about to be led from the ditch

A short distance further, the trail became a lot more primitive, the imaginary Falcon retiring at this point. Steve’s Suzuki came into it’s own here as it could drive down into the potholes and climb out the other side.
 
The trail was carved into the side of a step ravine about half way up. A rock filled river flowed far beneath, it’s waters stained a brownie yellow from the sulphur leaching in from the surrounding hills.
 
On some of the higher and steeper terrain all the driver could see out of there window was the cliff face. All the passenger could see was air and the several hundred feet shear drop to the valley below. On numerous occasions Martins navigator (wife Jocelyn) would offer assistance by suggesting that he “KEEP RIGHT!, KEEP RIGHT!”. I think she got tired of repeating herself and might have just closed her eyes in the end.

Huge drop off the side of the track

A very step downhill part of the track was encountered. Since previous visits this had been washed out in the middle. This created a large drop off and chasm just itching to engulf any unsuspecting vehicle.
Some thinking was done and a plan put in place to ensure the continued forward movement of the group.
Ross turned part Welsh coal minor with his pick axe and carved a channel we all hoped the lead wheel would be inclined to follow. The alternative was 6 inches over and involved crashing down a near vertical 30 foot bush clad bank. The tracks sudden drop meant the driver couldn’t see past the bonnet to know if they were going down the track or heading down the bank. Some diligent guidance from other drivers saw each truck gingerly inch there way down the slope.
 
Directly after this was a nice flat grassy area. The group stopped for morning tea and to calm those whose nerves may have been a little frazzled. Looking around while resting, a bridge was noticed. “Oh yes” proclaimed our fearless leader Ross, “that’s the bridge we could have taken instead”.

Guiding the driver down step section

Somewhere along the way Martin discovered that his Panhard rod had once again broken.
For those of us that don’t know what this is, it holds the rear diff from swinging out either side of the truck. He nursed it to the weatherboard shearer’s quarters that were our accommodation for the night. Here we met a friendly local farm hand who had obviously spent a long time in this very remote location.
The plan was to use a welding machine to mend the Panhard rod. However the isolation was such that power had to come from a large diesel generator, which was not running. This meant we couldn’t use the welder and potentially would be spending the night with no electric cooking, lighting or hot water. The farm worker was very obliging in this area and shot off to locate the keys to turn on the generator. He returned some time later announcing he was unable to find them. After much pondering we reached the conclusion that power was not to be had. It was then that the farm worker suggested that we could always wait for the automatic timer to turn the generator on in half an hour!
 
Day 2 saw us meandering our way along trails through very steep farm land reaching some relative altitudes. Don’t even think of playing spot the flat paddock here, because you’d loose. The abundance of blue skies meant spectacular views were plentiful. From the Trig point is was possible to see a full 360o view that included Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu and Egmont.

High, Hilly farm lands

We also came across the most palatial hunter’s hut you could ever find in the middle of a huge farm. This place was the size of a small house, had showers, flushing toilets and even a beer keg cooler!

Hunters Hut/Castle

The day was finished with a dirt road section before a cold one at the Whangamomona tavern to round up a fantastic weekend (Thanks Ross and co pilot Megan).

Whangamomona tavern