New Zealand State Highway 43 (SH 43), also called the Forgotten World Highway, is a road that runs 148 km from Stratford in

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth D ...

Taumarunui Taumarunui is a small town in the King Country of the central North Island of New Zealand. It is on an alluvial plain set within rugged terrain on the upper reaches of the Whanganui River, 65 km south of Te Kuiti and 55 km west of T ...

in the

King Country The King Country (Māori: ''Te Rohe Pōtae'' or ''Rohe Pōtae o Maniapoto'') is a region of the western North Island of New Zealand. It extends approximately from the Kawhia Harbour and the town of Otorohanga in the north to the upper reaches of ...

. It contains the only unsealed portion of the

New Zealand state highway network The New Zealand state highway network is the major national highway network in New Zealand. Nearly 100 roads in the North and South Islands are state highways. All state highways are administered by the NZ Transport Agency. The highways were ...

Route description

The road passes through small towns such as

Toko Toko is a small rural settlement 10 kilometres east of Stratford, New Zealand, at the intersection of East Road ( State Highway 43) and Toko Road. It is located on a railway, the Stratford–Okahukura Line, the western portion of which was o ...

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...

, Te Wera, Pohukura, Strathmore, Whangamōmona,

Marco Marco may refer to: People * Marco (given name), people with the given name Marco * Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor * Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin * Tomás Marco (born 1942), Spanish c ...

, Koruatahi, Tahora, Tatu, and 10 km off the highway is Ohura. In the 1920s the

Stratford–Okahukura Line The Stratford–Okahukura Line (SOL) is a secondary railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, between the Marton - New Plymouth Line (MNPL) and the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) Railway, with 15 intermediate stations. It is long thr ...

was built. Many of the ghost towns are from the railway days. Driving the highway takes up to 3 hours, as it passes through rugged countryside. It climbs three saddles: the Strathmore Saddle, Whangamōmona Saddle, and Tahora Saddle. 14 km past Whangamōmona is the Moki Tunnel, also known as Hobbit's Hole. Near one end of the Moki Tunnel is the turn off for the Mount Damper Falls, the fourth-highest in the North Island, and past the other end is the Tangarakau Gorge, with walls just under 60m high. Tangarakau Gorge, a road bridge and grave site

Tangarakau Gorge, a road bridge and grave site

of the road through Tarangakau Gorge is unsealed. This makes SH 43 the only state highway that currently has an unsealed section. There is also an unsealed section in the middle of , but that portion is not designated a state highway. A 2017 report stated that sealing the Tangarakau Gorge road would cost approximately $7m. In December 2019, the government allocated funding to seal the final section of unsealed highway.

Route changes

SH 43 used to end on at Ohura, before SH 40 was revoked in 1991 and SH 43 rerouted to Taumarunui via Aukopae along River Road.

Dangers

SH 43 has been ranked as one of the 10 worst roads in New Zealand by the

Police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

. The slippery gravel surface in the Tangarakau Gorge is the main cause of the highway's bad safety record. This section is now scheduled to be sealed however, because of the increasing traffic volume and increased tourism interest. Some local residents have in the past, protested the condition of the unsealed road; in 2016 homemade signs proclaimed the road "closed".

Culture

The road runs through the Republic of Whangamomona, a locality that declared itself a republic in 1989 after a revision in district boundaries forced it out of Taranaki.

References

External links