A drive through some of New Zealand’s North Island delivers spectacular natural and man-made wonders.
Willie Huch is praying. It’s a lilting song of longing and belonging performed at the edge of the wild river that thunders through the core of the North Island in New Zealand (Aotearoa).
The Whanganui River (known to Māori as Te Awa Tupua) is the longest navigable river in the country and Willie Huch is a river guardian up to his knees in water. A posse of young kayakers is clinched tightly into bright safety jackets preparing to tackle an 88-kilometre, three-day canoe expedition considered to be one of New Zealand’s Great Walks (albeit on water).
“You only know where you are going by knowing where you have come from,” Willie says. “The song speaks to our ancestors, our connections from mountains to sea, it tells how we are one with the river.” He pauses, waits for the message to sink in, then pushes a wide-bodied canoe into the current. “Away you go, folks,” he cheers. “Don’t tip over, but if you do, I’ll come and rescue you.”
He is laughing and serious at the same time because there will be plenty of spills and thrills on this encounter with the river that holds deep spiritual significance for Māori people. Layers of cultural history give contour to a voyage travelling back to a more innocent time, staying at campsites on the riverbank, sleeping in tramping huts with long drop toilets. This is the first of many sideways diversions on a road trip into a region of extraordinary natural beauty close to Mount Ruapehu and along the Whanganui River.
The journey begins a few days earlier in Auckland at the Airedale Boutique Suites on Queen Street. It’s an easy introduction to the city of harbours in a smart urban retreat that immediately reminds you of the value in a prime downtown location within short walking distance to the vibrant waterfront.
Auckland sets a high benchmark with good restaurants. Kingi is one of those incidental moments of discovery found in the historic Britomart precinct. It’s a foodie destination and, what luck, there’s a table free, in the beautifully restored building with exposed brick walls under soaring ceilings.
Every dish comes with a story: the name of the boat, the fisherman (or woman), the spot where the catch landed. The raw bar showcases quality New Zealand seafood and the wood fire brings out the best in locally sourced ingredients. Line-caught snapper, Stewart Island oysters, ethically harvested kingfish, you get the idea. Let’s sleep on it.
A road trip through the Ruapehu region via the Adventure Highway starts on State Highway One heading southwards from Auckland towards Hamilton. Roughly two hours into the drive, lives run at a different pace in the small town of Otorohanga, where travellers are welcomed at the Fat Kiwi Cafe and, further on, in the local Bosco Cafe at teeny-weeny Te Kuiti, the self-proclaimed Sheep Shearing Capital of the World.
These aren’t just pit stops. They’re small-town initiations into New Zealand life where baristas know regulars by name and homemade baking is daily bread. You could keep going for the best cup of coffee at the Blue Hill Cafe in Owhango, but let’s not play favourites, because there’s a cinematic marvel spooling past the car window.
Train enthusiasts will likely pause at the Raurimu Spiral lookout to witness one of New Zealand’s greatest engineering feats. It’s a piece of railway tracking that winds up a steep gradient of curves and loops just after Raurimu. If you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of the Northern Explorer making ascent towards Wellington.
Further on, at the end of a 20-minute walk on a bush track at the edge of the Tongariro National Park, Tawhai Falls feels strangely familiar. This is Middle Earth. It’s a place immortalised as Gollum’s Pool, in The Lord of the Rings, though intrepid day-trippers keen to avoid Insta ‘‘I am here’’ images, might keep going to tackle the spectacular 6km Taranaki Falls loop.
There’s raw beauty in an untouched landscape where good views are guaranteed around just about every bend in the road. Glorious Mount Ruapehu is clutching clouds beside Mount Tongariro and the perfectly conical Mount Ngāuruhoe. For this reason, if no other, it’s worth visiting the geologically fascinating UNESCO Dual World Heritage Site recognised for its cultural and natural significance.
Towards the town of Ohakune, Horopito Motors (trading as Smash Palace) is a sprawling vintage car graveyard, capturing the imagination of filmmakers for decades. The largest vintage car dismantler in Australasia still maintains that lovely feeling of unscripted authenticity so well encapsulated in Kiwi films, including Goodbye Pork Pie and the Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Driving into the culture-rich town of Ohakune, there is rare opportunity to experience traditional Māori welcome ceremonies (powhiri) at local marae (meeting grounds), with Ngāti Rangi (one of the local iwi/tribes) who share their heritage through karakia (traditional prayers and songs).
At the Te Pae Tata (Ruapehu Community Hub), visitors are welcomed with prayers and songs invoking protection and guidance, providing insight into spiritual practices shaped over centuries. These are not tourist shows. They’re genuine cultural exchanges that remind us of history and meaning. Ancient protocols are observed with grace and generosity by Māori people extending an open invitation to experience heartfelt connection with a shared sense of belonging.
It’s quite a contrast to what follows. In Australia, you can visit a big prawn, a big koala, a big lawnmower. “Generally, these objects are cannily set along a stretch of highway so astoundingly void and dull that you will stop for almost anything,” wrote Bill Bryson in his book Down Under. Not so in New Zealand. The road to Ohakune is never dull.
Located on State Highway 49, a massive root vegetable stands as a beacon of beta-carotene, possibly New Zealand’s most ambitious attempt to make vegetables exciting. The Big Carrot would put Ohakune on the map were it not known, just as significantly, for excellent hiking and cycling trails.
There are eight scenic rides connecting across a series of incredible landscapes on the Mountains to Sea — Ngā Ara Tūhono connected pathways network weaving through Ohakune. Hire a bike and peddle the Ohakune Old Coach Road to the unforgettable Hapuawhenua Viaduct, a long-ago link along New Zealand’s Main Trunk Railway line, an engineering feat spanning breathtaking ravine.
The newly developed Te Ara Mangawhero follows another path, a bush tramway built on narrow-gauge rails in the early 1900s to transport vast quantities of timber from dense forests surrounding Ohakune. Now, it’s a promise to right the wrongs of the past with conservation efforts rectifying logging impact, by the replanting of native trees and protection of natural waterways. Days could disappear exploring these trails but it’s back in the car for the drive to Blue Duck Station, a working farm that doubles as a wildlife conservation retreat, about two hours’ drive from Ohakune.
We settle into one of the rustic cottages with a well-equipped kitchen and extensive views of the Whanganui National Park. Bird call is continuous. Night comes with New Zealand’s distinctive native owl, the morepork, and the delightful kiwi. Dawn expands in a melody of tui, bellbird, blackbird and the prospect of several exhilarating experiences. One of the most-talked-about Blue Duck Station adventures — other than spotting the elusive, endangered blue duck (whio) — is the farm-to-table fine-dining experience, The Chef’s Table. Casual meals are available in the Blue Duck Station Cafe but many guests navigate a rugged two-hour bush safari by an indestructible all-terrain vehicle to arrive at the intimate 10-seat restaurant under the ministrations of English-born chef Jack Cashmore.
It’s a privilege to witness a choreographic performance in the open kitchen where passion meets perfectionism at what’s, surely, the highest peak in the world. Foraged ingredients are refined, tender and nuanced: wild venison from the hills, fermented mushrooms that whisper of ancient forests, smoked eel with fresh nasturtium, ingredients that almost outshine the panoramic vista.
This is a theatre on top of the world, where every bite-sized bit zings with purity and flavour. Landscape settles into twilight, then darkness, as the final course concludes. Guests retreat to private cabins with ensuite bathrooms. It’s all part of the experience. The moon rises, stays a while, slides away with dawn. At breakfast, a homemade crumpet encourages reflection upon a piece of New Zealand that hasn’t been overly prettified for tourist consumption.
The sense of peace achieved at Blue Duck Station prevails on the return journey heading back to Auckland. Slowly. Bradley’s Garden is a stopping point in a five-star Garden of National Significance on the Forgotten World Highway. A highly personalised horticultural masterpiece created and maintained by the Bradley family is an endurance test, lovingly tended for decades, and you don’t need to be a gardener to appreciate its charms.
The last interlude is a place of pastoral tranquillity 7km outside the small town of Taumarunui. One night at Omaka Lodge won’t ever be enough when boutique accommodation crystallises the concept of warm hospitality in a forgotten corner of New Zealand.
The owners, Scott Riches-McPherson and Christopher Riches, settled here for the sense of “community and generosity”. It’s another garden sanctuary tended for more than 40 years by previous owners, a series of garden rooms demonstrating extraordinary attention to detail in the placement of each plant, according to light and shadow throughout the day. Sculptures by New Zealand artists frame distant views of Herlihy Bluff and Mount Hikurangi but, as is often the case, it’s the home-cooked dinner and the comforts of the elegant Ruapehu Suite that linger in memory.
And for a moment —just a moment — everything makes perfect sense in this journey to Middle Earth bounded by rich Māori culture and the most dramatic landscape on the planet. We know where we have come from and where we are going.
