Remote it definitely is, but as Weekend Drive correspondent David Coxon says, if you make the effort to drive there, the Republic of Whangamomona has a lot to offer.

Unfortunately, from my perspective it is most of a day’s run from home just to get to the area, so any visit has to be a long weekend trip.
Our plan this time was to have a leisurely start on the Saturday to avoid as much of the peak traffic as we could, taking the day to get to our base in an Airbnb on the coast south of Stratford, with Sunday and Monday morning for exploring before the return trip to Wellington.
The trip up to our base was easy and uneventful, with no hold-ups once we got past Otaki. Apart from a detour to the beach out of Levin for a pleasant and quiet lunch stop at one of our previously-discovered picnic spots, we drove straight through to our accommodation, getting there in time for a relaxing break before taking a five minute drive to the coast for a walk and to watch the sunset.
Sunday was to be our main day exploring, although that did not prevent us having a relaxed start, enjoying breakfast in the sun out the back of our Airbnb farmhouse. The start of our trip showed just how much impact Mt Taranaki (aka ‘the Mountain) has on the weather in these parts, with the clear sunny sky of the coast being replaced by dark clouds and rain and then cloudy but dry conditions, all before we reached Stratford.
There we stopped for fuel and chatted to a guy filling up a tough-looking 4WD on a trailer. He was part of the local 4WD club and told us a group of them were going in to rescue someone who had come off one of the back roads in the area we were exploring. We wished him luck and resolved to treat the roads with respect. The run up to Whangamomona was sealed and rather windy, but we took it in a leisurely manner and found it a stress-free run. When we got there, Whangamomona was buzzing with a car club group and a number of private trips all passing through at the same time, so to add to the buzz, we also stopped for a coffee. We also had a quick chat to one of the other customers, who was waiting for help to arrive to rescue his vehicle from down a bank. We never did determine if this was the recovery we had heard about at Stratford.

Real remoteness
Moving on, we passed through the Whangamomona Gorge, with its unsealed section providing a real feel of remoteness and some beautiful scenery. Our plan was to turn off the main route and take Mangapara Rd to Ohura, with a loose plan to have lunch when a pleasant location with adequate parking appeared, however all plans were thrown into disarray when we discovered that Mangapara Rd was closed for repairs.
By the time we had followed the marked detour further along SH43 to Roto Rd, we felt as if we were nearly to Taumarunui, a bit further north than we planned to go, but Roto Rd was a very enjoyable remote gravel road drive, although somewhat corrugated in places. A brief but torrential downpour just before we got to Ohura was followed by a rapidly clearing sky and when we spotted a picnic table in the Ohura park, we had perfect lunch stop.  
Although the park was right on the main street there was no traffic at all during our stay, and short walk gave us a chance to catch up with some of the very friendly locals. We would like to have been able to stay longer and explore some of the walks they were telling us about, however we had about 35km to go to reach Ahititi, and much of this was narrow and windy gravel roads with a couple of saddles and another of the area’s famous hand-hewn tunnels to enjoy on the way.
This was a road that suited a slow and relaxed style of driving, very much in keeping with our preferred way to explore, and proved a very pleasant and scenic run, indeed.

The right choice!
At Ahititi we had the choice of either the interesting way back to SH43 or heading straight out to the coast north of New Plymouth. The consensus was that an easier drive to the coast would be a pleasant change of scenery and although longer, was probably quicker given the easier and faster roads. I must admit that it was with some pleasure that we arrived back at base just before dark with a 365km loop under our belt.
Although we needed to travel back to Wellington on Monday, we were not going to leave without a bit more exploring. Firstly, following a few more of the network of roads around the base of Mt Taranaki, we visited Hollard Gardens for a gentle walk. We took the time to relax and enjoy the environment of these extremely well set up gardens, complete with getting a free coffee in the well-presented visitors’ centre.
It was then on to Hawera, where we turned off to access the flooded Patea River gorge, behind the hydro dam. This was an interesting gravel road drive up a valley, over the hills into the river gorge, with another of the hand-hewn tunnels near the top of the hill. After a bit of exploring we got to the road end on the very point of one of the river bends for a relaxing and peaceful lunch spot.
Returning to the main road, it was time for the long run back to Wellington, only broken by a quick and blustery coffee stop at Virginia Lake in Whanganui. Luckily our concerns about heavy holiday traffic coming back into Wellington did not eventuate and once again we were home before dark, in fact about an hour earlier than we expected, ending another enjoyable trip that ticked off a few more undriven roads.