WEEKEND DRIVE
WITH SPRING IN ITS FIRST FULL FLUSH DAVID & MAY COXON DECIDED A RETURN TRIP TO THE BACKBLOCKS OF THE MANAWATU TO SEE AND PHOTOGRAPH SOME NEW SCENERY WAS IN ORDER.
recent 4WD club trip I ran in the Ashhurst area (see the October issue) showed some strong photographic potential but overcast weather and a convoy of over 20 vehicles meant photography took a back seat to leading the trip that day.
This time we just had our friends Ashley and Gillian for company, and we had picked a day with plenty of potential for good lighting.
Meeting up at Ashhurst, our first section was to work our way along the roads in the range of hills overlooking the northern Manawatu, looking for photographic inspiration among the lush green fields and rolling hills. Good roads, very little traffic
With good quality gravel roads and very little traffic, we made many stops to enjoy and photograph the views as we looped our way up to the ridge overlooking the Pohangina River valley and back down to the plains, admiring everything from rolling fields of colourful tulips to the wind turbines on the ranges.
Eventually, we took the opportunity of passing through Kimbolton to stop at the town band rotunda for a late lunch. It was very pleasant taking in the silence and peaceful ambience of small-town New Zealand in the beautifully maintained surroundings while we planned the next leg of our trip.
We decided to head a little further north and explore a few potential loops and deadend roads that we had not seen or had not completed, starting with the most distant one, Table Flat Rd, and working our way back towards home. En route, we were attracted to the contrast between the winter-bare branches of some of the trees and the lush green fields in which they were growing.
Table Flat Rd was one that we had started on about five years earlier but had stopped to explore a signposted walk to a glow-worm grotto and after that adventure it was too dark to explore further. Passing the sign for the walk, we promised ourselves to come back to it in summer and this time continued to the end of the windy gravel road, now Limestone Rd, which was a car park for tramping access to the Ruahine Ranges.
According to the map, there was almost a loop from the end of Limestone Rd back via Pohangina Valley East Rd and Tunipo Rd, so we decided to return to the valley and explore the other half of the loop. Returning to the valley, the views west from Table Flat Rd were well worth stopping to photograph before we tackled our final run.
A friendly wave
Tunipo Rd was another scenic run on a gravel road that felt more like a farm track as we progressed, although it was still marked as
a road on the map and was fenced on both sides. When we met an oncoming quad I half expected to be told we were on private property, but instead we got a friendly wave as they passed us.
Eventually Tunipo Rd turned into Umutoi North Rd, which we followed to the end at a farm gate We returned, following Umutoi North Rd back to Pohangina Valley East
Rd, completing the final loop and heading back down to Ashhurst just as darkness fell, marking the end of another very enjoyable and photographically successful outing.