ROAD DOWN GORGE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 267, 5 February 1941, Page 5

ROAD DOWN GORGE

THE ROARING RANGITAIKI

BORDER RIVER OF UREWERAI

The road down the Rangitaiki River from Galatea to Te Teko surpasses the much-advertised Bullcr Gorge route as a highway of unusual landscape Aaluc. That at least is the opinion of Mr James Cowan, avc 11 known journalist and historian. In an article in the Auck land Star he declares that some day it will take rank as a road of woniw der and beauty, and big tourist buses will hurtle around its dizzy corners. They will not hurtle yet a while; the road is precariously narrow in places, and the overhanging mountains have a trick of toppling a rock or so down on the wheel-was 7 ] carved out of their flanks.

I had imagined I kneAV all the wild glens and rugged traverses in and about the UreAvera mountain land, from the Avestern sierras to the tapu peak Maungapoliatu arid the gulches and cliffs of the Huiarau and down to the bays of Waikare-? raoana. Travel and camp in the forests that cover most of that region, spread over 40 years, gave a pretty thorough knowledge of the land and its Maori people. But until X travelled along the neAV Rangitaiki River Road I had not seen at close quarters that section of the Avestern buttresses of the Tuhoe l,and between the Galatea plains and the( Rotorua-Whakatane main highway at Te Teko.

between these places is supplied by ibis road about 32 miles in length. It was made to give the Government's newly broken"-! n farm settlement at Galatea (or more correctly Tauaroa) and the outer world, an alternative route to. the long way round, via the Kaingaroa Plain and Rotorua. It also gives the Urewera Maoris a better way of communication between Ruatoki and the mountain villages.

The Misty Mountains It rained all the way from Rotorua across the Kaingaroa Plains, where the road is shut in now by the new forest of exotic pines. It had been raining for a week in the high country. The tops of the Urewera highlands were blanketed in fog. We had glimpses of the shoulders of Tawhiuau, the sacred peak of the Ngat'nManawa tribe, whose homes are clown on the terraces along the Rangitaiki. A rightly named mountain,- Tawhiuau means "Swirling Mists." They drifted raggedly about its steep pyramid; they parted a moment to reveal the high waterfall that drops from the bush and loses itself in a hidden gully .

The Rangitaiki River, Ave saAV as we Avcnt down to it from the eastern edge of the Kaingaroa, was in high flood, rushing under its white bridge at Murupara, eddying in Avhirlpools. Turning off to the left on the eastern bank, avc took the neAV road through the Galatjeajj&state. Where A\*e formerly had to ford the riA r ers on horseback at? doubtful crossings, -there noAV were bridges; there were roads and fences and every here and there a neat farmhouse. The mountains seemed higher than ever, rolled about in mists; in the gulches between their lower steeps we had glimpses of the thunderous blue mystery land.

The Galatea Farms This alluvial plain that opened out between the Rangitaiki and the mountains is the Kuhawaea. Long ago it was a lake until the powerful Rangitaiki, which fed it, burst the barriers, on the north and emptied the flat-floored sea. The pumice showered on the hills by the volcanoes of the past was borne down in vast quantities on the plains, scouring deep valley, accentuating the sharp outlines of the sierra that builds the western ramparts of the Urewera.

We seemed, as we drove tlie Tauaroa estate that was once the great Troutbeck sheep statfion, to be moving endlessly through a prairie of mist. The dim shapes of farm buildings and haystacks appeared and vanished. We crossed th® Whirinaki River, rushing in from the mountains its discoloured waters almost level with the bridge planking. It is the la-gest tributary of the Rangitaikl in these parts and the timber on its upper waters increases its of erosion in this ki id that cries out for tre • » fees.

Wild River From the northern limits of the Tauaroa country where the Government has transformed the rough sheep station into some 50 improved farms, all within the last six or seA'en years, we closely skirted the right bank of the Rangitaiki. The mountains on our right greAV more steep and stepped closer to i|s. Across the river the Kaingaroa table land increased in height and its edge dropped down in bluffs.

Presently the river's course nar-

rowed to a gorge, and it ran in rapids, plunging furiously. The Urewera Ranges bccame a series of bold buttresses, rising precipitously aboA'e the yellowing currents. Our road was cut out of the cliffs; the rata and rimu trees leaned out

over us Avhcrever there Avas a firm footing. The gutters of the mountains gushed; fiom every misty chine and gully came a stream or a waterfall.

We could not see the mountain tops; they were Ridden from us, not only by the steepness of their pitch, but by the soaking mists. Doavii beloAV the road as it snaked and climbed along the range foot the became, a succession of rapids. It l*aved and roared; it Avas no longer the Rangitaiki of the smooth though swift upper reaches.

There were little islands in its course, with trees and ferns; it charg ed at them and over them,* and sent its spray high up the banks. It was a Mad River of the White Mountains, 10 miles of it or more before it steadied down once more. Now the Kaingaroa Plain-edge humped itself up into mountains. Tn the most savage part the riverway dashed through an ancient crater gorge or series of craters. There was a vitreous cliff face, glinting like obsidian; it was clearly the wall of a dead volcano; it shone in the wet like the explosion craters on Rainbow Mountain, away yonder on the other edge of the Kaingaroa . Lonely Road A savage corner, this ravine, or rather canyon, alive with the noise of many waters. The buttresses of east and west seemed to threaten each other; they would have plunged into a battle of the rocks but for this river that pushed through between them. A long waterfall poured over the volcano brim opposite our road, one of those fissures (in, this eastern edge of the tableland. The Waiohau River came swiftly out from the ranges through a sudden basin to open. land. A Maolri meetinghouse and a few wharcs, the Waiohau kainga. Now more bold cliffs, which had tested all the road-making skill of the highway carvers. The ranges drew back again, the valley opened out and the Rangitakii smoothed its ftace, and you would scarcely have known it for the same river by the time Ave crossed it by the bridge at Tc Tcko. All that riverside journey—it was a Sunday—we did not meet ear, man or dog. It was fortunate; the gorge road was narrowest just at the worst corners, and was quite unprotected. Guard That Bush Of one thing Ave were convinced —if avc had not been com r inced already—that this Rangitaiki, running a practically straight course for the greater part of its length, is charged Avith immense powers of damage to the lower lands unless the bush on the- ranges above it .is strictly protected. Guard that forest and the bush along its tributaries. for your lives. I would say 1 , to all who have to do with settle' ment along the Rangitaiki. The Galatea farms are at the mercy of the mountains that stand sentry on the east, tAvo thousand feet and more above the plains. Not a tree, not a scrap of fern or manuka should be cut or burned off, either on the flanks of the ranges or along the tributary valleys, I have seen no place in New Zealand Avhere the duty of forest preservation is so obviously a national duty as this Avestei»n side of the Urewera mountainland.