Mangapurua Valley

Ruapehu Bulletin, 25 August 1992, Page 4

Mangapurua Valley

• In response to the comment by J B Martin regarding the Mangapurua Road I offer the following points of clarification. The Mangapurua Road was a government road established and later maintained by the Public Works Department,

solely for the purpose of providing access to the settlements in the Mangapurua Valley. Initially the roadway was only formed to a width of six feet but this was later widened to twelve feet. The costs associated with forming and maintaining the road were more than the Waimarino County Council's budget could cope with so the Public Works Department had a more-or-less full time gang on the road for the years it was open. Following massive flood damage in 1942, both the Public Works Department and the Waimarino County Council refused to restore the road; Public Works having spent over £8000 to restore the road during the 1936 floods. As a result, Treasury recommended to Cabinet that all maintenance of the road should cease and that the settlers therefore be advised that they would have to abandon their properties. Cabinet approved and all maintenance of the road ceased. Since that time the road surface has progressively deteriorated. Although some sections of the formation remain intact, the slips, washouts, impassable bluff sections and removal of vehicle bridges across the many side

streams (which occurred shortly after the settlement was abandoned) make vehicle access below Slippery Creek totally impractical. In 1986 the Crown Lands of the Mangapurua Valley became part of the Whanganui National Park. At the same time, in response to increasing public use of the valley, work began on upgrading of the tramping track which more or less followed the old road line. The park management plan, adopted in 1989, proposed that the Mangapurua Road become part of the park to ensure more effective management and control of the area. As horses and off-road vehicles would clearly compromise track upgrading efforts and some natural values associated with the national park, management plan policies were written to specifically prohibit the use of off-road vehicles or horses. The road was resumed following application by DoC to the Department of Lands and it has since been given the status of scenic reserve. The agreement of the Waimarino County Council was also sought

and obtained. The Council asked DoC to cover all survey and legal fees and also to ensure that dispensation be given to farmers mustering wayward stock. Resumption of the road has not taken away public right of access into the valley. The road line remains under Crown ownership and open to public use. While the protected status of the road line now precludes the use of vehicles" along it, this only applies in practice to the four kilometres between the Kaiwhakauka tum-off and Slippery Creek. The fifteen or so kilometres between Slippery Creek and the Whanganui River is inaccessible to vehicles due to natural barriers. I suggest your readers would enjoy Arthur P Bates' book on the Mangapurua Valley entitled "The Bridge to Nowhere". This book provides an excellent insight to the history of settlement (and subsequent abandonment) of the area. It is available through booksellers and at the Department of Conservation.

Bill Simmons Operations Manager for Regional Conservator