43 - The Forgotten World Highway

The name itself should prepare you for what you are about to drive. A 150km stretch of inland highway (part sealed, part gravel) with ZERO gas stations. When you leave Taumaranui there is a sign that has the picture of a gas pump with an 'x' through it. 150km written underneath.

If you blink and happen to miss this sign, have a happy drive!!

We set out on the road around 5pm. Maybe not the best idea, maybe not the worst. We definitely didn't want to spend another night in Taumaranui. We have seen the highlights and after our big hike, we wanted to get a move on our trip. It's difficult because by 6.30pm you are in total darkness. It feels late, yet its still so early. But driving the roads in New Zealand isn't something you should do at night unless you have spent maybe a bit more daylight hours driving.

We initially wanted to do the coast highway, but didn't have time to get to New Plymouth that night if we chose that route. It's a longer treck, and at night, it loses any sense of scenery. You lose the ocean waves crashing into the rocks under the cliff you are driving on. So we took our pleasant old english friend's advice and drove the forgotten hwy #43. Our initial plan was to get to a cafe somewhere on the road, a quaint place our Tamaranui friend suggested. But she didn't know where it was on the road, so we had no idea how far we would be driving.

On the New Zealand map, it would seem that there were a few larger towns en route to a city named Stratford (just outside of New Plymouth). But once you get there, you quickly realize that 'larger town' on this forgotten hwy and the actual fact that the hwy is named so should be information enough to stay clear at night.

We had about an hour of good light for the drive. I'm the only one driving of course - poor Brent still hasn't completed ye olde graduated licensing. So it's all on me. Thank goodness I love to drive. And in the country, driving on the left isn't so bad.

Driving on THIS road, different story.

It all started out nice. Smooth rolling hills, beautiful farm land, the occasional goat bouncing along the road's ditch, the Whanganui River swiftly moving alongside the highway. It was nice. Peaceful.

Add the mixture, our dear car who was acting up only a few hours earlier, and a sincere concern on our parts that SHIII just might not make it all the way to New Plymouth to see a doctor and then bring on the elements that are both beautiful, daunting and just plain enerving and we have our white knuckled drive to our current location.

The smooth rolling hills quickly became larger mountainous cliffs creating canopies over the roadway. Dangerous canopies of land slips. Eroded ground that had been pomelled by heavy rain over the last few weeks, and you get incredible obstacles on the road. And that's just on the side along the cliff providing you with landslides. On the other side of your car, you would have a sheer cliff drop down to a rocky abyss or a river. And that side of the road was crumbling apart and creating sink holes along the hwy.

No kidding, like the worst of both 'cliff' worlds rolled up into one road - for FOUR HOURS!!! Then it started to rain. I thought we were going to die. You were puttering along up extremely windy uphill roads, turning corners so slow as most corners concealed massive land slips that took out an entire lane of the two-lane road. And with Huntington acting up, I was almost worried to drive too slow or he might stall again or just stop working all together.
We took note of every house we passed. Just to know how far we would have to walk should our car decide to stop working.

One lane bridges every few kilometers. Livestock all over the roadways - with no indication of where they might be coming from. You would be in the middle of a mountain road, and boom - goat, or boom - three sheep. But no farms nearby. It was strange. Most of the time you only saw the animals when you were already passed them. They would be eating grass in a ditch and suddenly decide to cross the road right after your car drove past.

Four hours.

Then Brent got cold. I got cold. Our defroster doesn't work. Haha, more ghettoness, but we knew this when we bought it. You have to blast the A/C on the defroster/foot setting. Well, this got to be too much at one point, so Brent decided to warm us up by blasting a bit of heat on the 'face' setting for a few moments before tending to the windows again.

Big mistake on our part. We lost control of our defrost/foot setting from that point on.

So here we are, turning the roads, crawling practically on this ridiculous road, Brent now holding the control to force the defroster to work. Fog setting in, rain slightly dissipating, passing towns that literally consist of 2-3 houses, feeling like this is never going to end.

We finally spotted the cafe. We stopped for a moment in their carpark area, then decided if we're going to be driving in these conditions again in the morning it's going to suck - might as well just go all the way. Again, it's still early in the day. Despite the darkness (seriously - the only reason I don't enjoy the winter has to be the lack of daylight hours).

Our eyes are set on Stratford. Maybe we'll stop there. The map indicates it might be a bustling town. But when you get there, again, there isn't much to the town that doesn't make you want to drive that extra 3/4 hours to just get to New Plymouth.

We booted it from Stratford to New Plymouth. Finally able to attain and maintain a speed of 100km/hr. Which by the way is the speed limit on those terrible windy mountain roads that are both washing away and being taken over by the landslides. 100km/hr!!! Who would seriously drive that???

Mt. Taranaki is lost in the night sky. But we drive around the national park along our way.

The first thing I noticed about being in New Plymouth is that I had grown accoustomed to driving in the smaller towns. There are some strange rules of the road in New Zealand that I can't quite explain. So I had to get back into city mode. But I was also getting pretty tired at this point from the long drive.
It was just after 9.15pm when we finally stopped at a Quality Inn hotel near the city centre. It's always fun to try and find hotels in new cities. Or even try to figure out where you are. We are AA members (which is like CAA) - and they give you like a million maps when you sign up with their service. Only problem is that the maps are terrible. They lack detailed road information - even the inner city maps. They name the main roads, and sometimes only indicate the side roads without their names. And a lot of times, especially outside the main cities - they don't indicate ALL the roads. They might only map out the sealed roads. It's insane. Useless, half the time, useless.

It was too late to sign into a hostel that night, so we were lucky with this hotel. We managed to get an Executive suite for under 80$. And it was beautiful. Huge and luxurious - and not 'Bog Inn' type luxurious...just really nice!!
After long trecks we like to grab a high calorie meal before settling into our "hostel meal plan" of budget food we pick up at the local grocery store. Our eyes were set on this place called Burger Wisconsin. Open 5pm to late. (what does that even mean??) We got there at 9.45pm. Apparently, too late.

Closed.

Bummers.

So instead, we chose a more classy Pizza Hut double pizza combo that we could chow down in front of the tele and save some for a big lunch tomorrow.

Delicious.


The Seaspray House.

We set out early the next day to sign into the hostel. A gorgeous sea side home with exceptionally large rooms. Our room has an additional wardrobe room. It's incredible. We spoke to our hostess about any local mechanics she would recommend, so we could have SHIII looked after that afternoon. Walked through map information with her and set on our way.

This city is wonderful. It's on the Tasman Sea and it's so close to Mt. Taranaki. Only one real mountain I suppose, but it's still amazing. Mind you, to this day, we still haven't actually seen the mountain. It's been too cloudy. I think I got a glimpse of it on our first day - but that's all it was, a small glimpse. We look forward to getting to the park, so we can actually see the mountain. :)
We dropped off Sir Huntington and set out on their main strip to discover the city. The city offers a lot of great galleries and museums, all free of charge. So if it's raining a bit too hard, you can always find a warm place to enjoy.

It took a few hours, but we finally got a call from the local mechanic. Basically, they did NOTHING. Originally, they told us they would see if they would be able to run a diagnostics test on our car to see what the problem is - but weren't sure if they had the right parts to do one on a KIA. What they didn't tell us after we left is IF they discovered they could do a diagnostics test on our car or not. That's what we wanted - and instead they puttered away at who knows what and slapped us with a bill just shy of $200 for NOTHING!!!

I can't even explain how frustrating that was. We still had no information about our car and this place just dicked us around.

We just left and headed to the KIA dealership to speak to them directly. We thought we could trust a recommended mechanic - but I don't think I'll go that route again (unless I personally know the mechanic) - I just say speak to the dealers' mechanics directly.

The KIA service manager, Terry, was AMAZING. He ran a diagnostic test on our car FREE OF CHARGE (we didn't ask him to not charge us), he looked at what he could do and when they figured it was an electrical problem, sent us to their electrical guy so we could be taken care of. He is this wonderful man. His son is currently travelling in Ontario - and I think maybe we might have reminded him of his son (around the same age). But he treated us so well. We explained that we got dicked around by the other mechanic, and only wanted the problem looked after. He was so happy to help us.

The next day we set out in the early morning to see the electrical crew. After several hours of walking back and forth from the city, we finally got a call from the shop saying that it wasn't an electrical problem and that we would have to go back to KIA, as it might all be mechanical.

So back we went to the shop to bring Huntington to the KIA guys. I swear, we started to feel that we were reliving Hamilton all over again. We spent a stupid amount of time trying to purchase a car, and now here we are trying to fix the stupid thing.

Back to Terry we go. He took us in and sent us into town with one of his helpers, so we didn't have to wait around in the area for the car (cause there really isn't much to do in that area, and we had already killed our entire morning trying to make the most of that area). So we tried to distract ourselves, but really just wanted to hear our phone ring. At this point we know that a gear is slipping in our speedo. Which is affecting everything. The car is stalling now more then ever, the computer is confused and sending mixed messages to the spedometer and the rest of the car. But now we wait to see if its the gear box on top of the transmission (cheaper fix) or INSIDE the transmission (probably not worth the money!).

We spoke to Terry half past four. Right before they closed shop. He didn't want to tell us over the phone.

Not a good sign. That can't be a good sign.

Matthem came back to pick us up and I sat there anxiously awaiting the news.
"Give it to me straight doc", I said once I saw Terry. He smiled. Maybe the news isn't so bad?

They have to replace a gearbox, but they still don't know which one is the problem. We all think it's the top one - which has the computer sensor inside. BUT we can't know for sure until you replace that one and drive it around.
Probably the hardest job for a mechanic is not knowing what the problem is. Sometimes you have to try one thing to rule it out. They didn't have a spare part to put on our car to test it out, so we decided to take the financial hit and have him order the part (which will be in on Tuesday/Wednesday - in time for our return from our first hike up Mt. Taranaki). At the same time, we're just going to get the dang car serviced (it's like 13,000km overdue - says the odometer which might be very wrong). Terry has done so much for us - because once again he didn't charge us a dime for looking at our car. AND he fixed our demister and showed us how to fix it if it sticks again.

Amazing. So wonderful. So we want to bless him and his shop with all the work we need done. We're still irritated by the other mechanic cause that's $200 we'll never see again - for work that never happened. But we truly feel that we have been blessed by Terry over the last few days as he has been watching over our car. And you just feel that you can trust him.

I told the woman at our hostel about the mechanic she recommended and I suggested this alternate location - because I feel that this man is not out for the money. Which is important - especially for foreigners who backpack through the country.

So many trips to the car doctor later, we might have solved Sir Huntington's flu. Sadly, we're going to push him to the mountain as the part won't be in for a few days. He can sit at the carpark for a few nights while we tramp through the country side. :)

We'll be in New Plymouth two more times. We return on Tuesday or Wednesday (if there is bad weather on the mountain) to spend a few nights resting up for our 6 day hike around the mountain, and once again just after that long hike. The lovely hostesses at the Seaspray House are going to look after our extra gear while we are away - keeping it safely out of harms way. DOC carparks are notorious for car theft.

Kiwi Observations - 1st edition. Small things I feel like noting since our arrival. Brent saw the ocean for the first time two days ago - with a beautiful view of the Tasman Sea. He still hasn't seen a real mountain up close and personal. Or at least to this point, Mt. Pureora is as big as it gets for him. We have met some amazing people in the hostels we have been staying at - including our first Canadian last night at the Seaspray. It's amazing to meet so many other people who are also out on this lifetime adventure. A lot of Germans and British people. Not really anyone who is out to do the trails like we are. They all think it's pretty sweet though. I can't say enough how dangerous it is for pedestrians here. Actually, I'm more fearful for the pedestrians in other countries that kiwis rent cars in. They have ZERO regard for people. They will drive right into you at all cost - its the laziest driving I have ever witnessed. Even if they have a stop sign, they will do all that they can to get in your way so they can go first. Scary! Fruit & Veggies in supermarkets are super expensive - thank goodness for canned fruit and frozen veggies. Gas is dropping (yay) - it now sits at 197.9/litre. I don't think I'll ever complain about gas back home again. We have been paying 202.9 since we got the car. The only good thing is that it is consistent everywhere you go. None of this yoyo pricing that we get in Toronto. Walking in the woods without predatory animals is priceless. It's just you and the birds here. Amazing. We quickly found a store chain called the warehouse - like a Walmart but cleaner. Then we found a grocery store called Pak & Save - kind of costco like in style, but with shoppers that make you FEEL like you are in a Walmart on Christmas Eve (yuck!).

I think that's all for now. We set off early morning to hike Mt. Taranaki's
Pouakaki Range. We'll be back in New Plymouth on Tuesday or Wednesday to eat yummy greasy food and get Sir Huntington III in for his operation.

Good times are being had here in New Zealand.