The River Road, Possum Pie and wall-to-wall Sheep

Tuesday 10 March - Cool, breezy and showery 16C - drove 167km

Up early and hot-cross buns for breakfast! The SH4 heads north out of Wanganui along side the Whanganui river. We followed the road for 14km before turning off onto the River Road.

The River Road follows the Whanganui to the small settlement of Piririki and is an excellent drive, most of it is surfaced. The first obvious stop is the Anamoana view point which provides fantastic views up the river valley towards the mountains. The road then dives down to river level and follows it for the next 50km. Some of the time, the road and river are side-by-side, but then the road has to wind up over hills before rushing back down to join it again. A reminder that much of this land was once deep under the sea is to be seen at the Oyster Cliffs, for 30-40 feet above the road oyster shells can be seen sticking out of the muddy rock.

There is plenty of evidence that early settlers were spreading the Christian word as they filtered upstream. Several of the settlements have been named after towns and cities in Europe. The town names were translitterated into Maori and we passed through Atene (Athens), Koriniti, (Korinth), Ranana (London) and Hiruharama (Jerusalem) as we headed up river. The Flying Fox is a small lodge on the opposite side of the river only accessible by aerial cableway! Not long after Hiruharama, the road surface disappeared and we were back to gravel.

Another odd feature was a suspension bridge that was rotting away and lead to nowhere! The planks on the bridge were rotting away and the handrails long gone, a bit sad really.

Finally, we reached Piririki and stop at a small cabin for a coffee and chat with the owner. He explained as he lived on Maori land he was unable to sell his property, not that he really seemed to want to! He also filled us in on the local pests, mainly possums that eat all the fruit on this trees unless he puts pipes around the trunks to stop them climbing! He also said that in his youth, they used to trap possums and his grandmother would skin them and make an excellent possum casserole. Sadly, the possums have been found to be carrying TB, so now are just a pest. The Department of Conservation has a huge eradication programme in place to get rid of possums.

Back on the gravel road, but now heading away from the river, we climbed up through the forests and finally came out on sheep grazing country. Rounding a corner, we came across a shepherd on an ATV accommpanied by 4 dogs herding sheep up the road. With the shepherds approval and the help of one of his dogs, we then attempted to get through the flock. The road was awash with thousands of sheep and every time we went around a bend we expected to see the front of the flock - but no, there were more sheep. After several miles, we finally broke free of the sheep block and headed back up to SH4 which we had left several hours earlier.

Heading back down to Wanganui, we briefly stopped at some falls by the roadside and saw several silver eye birds.

Following a well worn route, we headed straight to the hot tub when we got back to the motel.

There seem to be no shortage of Oriental food outlets in New Zealand towns, and we managed to find a Thai restaurant to eat at this evening.