Saga of the mountain road

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 20, 8 October 1985, Page 10

Saga of the mountain road

Part 1 Sixty years after the first study started looking at a road up the southern slopes of Mt Ruapehu, a determined band of Ohakune residents finally made it happen. For 1 5 years the Ohakune Mountain Road Association battled terrain, climate and bureaucracy to forge the vital road link from Ohakune Junction to the skifield. In the summer of 1 96667 they made it. The first study was the Cockayne report, commissioned by the Park Board in 1907. It foresaw a need for a new route up the mountain after the completion of the main trunk railway. The following year E. H. Snow, who, with his two sons, had blazed a track that . ranabove the bushline from Rangataua, gave the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts detailed information about his proposed guided tours up this track to the mountain. The department did not check his claims for the route. It went on referring people to the Waihohonu Hut, the recognised base for Ruapehu ascents. In 1909 the Ohakune Chamber of Commerce secretary, Alex Wilkie, approached the department to promote the route from Ohakune Junction to the summit of Ruapehu. Like Mr Snow, Mr Wilkie got no response. But both the Ohakune route promoters and the Rangataua settlers, led by Reg Sigley, kept pushing their claims. The Rangataua group sought

an extension of the Mangateitei Road to enable visitors to travel to the summit the following summer. In August 1909 the Under-Secretary for Lands told both groups that the Park Board, to which their representations had been sent on, had no money to build tracks, let alone roads. But he arranged for Phillips T urner to check the relative advantages of the two routes. Turner reported that neither route was important. He recommended the route from Waimarino (National Park) would be easier, cheaper and would open up more of the park to the public. That wasn't the end of the matter as far as either the Ohakune or Rangataua groups were concerned.

From Rangataua, Snow and his sons improved their track to a good bridle path through nearly 14km of forest. In December 1909 he invited the Ministers of Railways and of Tourist and Health Resorts to inspect the area. They declined, but Snow started advertising his guiding and camping services

and ran his trips till 1918. Later H. W. Koester took over the trips, as chairman of the Rangataua Alpine Club. Finally, in 1928 the club withdrew its application to the park board for a hut permit and the Rangataua access attempt ended there. Continued next week