Nov 17, 2025 Part 2 …Douglas to Whangamomona
We enjoyed our short hike across the Manganui Gorge swing bridge and walk to the ski field, but we had another goal to reach, so we drove down off the mountain and headed east. The town of Stratford is the western terminus of the Stratford-Okahukura Rail line (from the Nov 9 post) and is at the base of the eastern flank of Mt. Taranaki. We decided to drive the Forgotten World Highway from Stratford to Whangamomona, the town where we started our golf-cart rail-trail Forgotten World Adventure. The road travels across the eastern volcanic plain to the town of Douglas where we had to stop!
Besides the dairy farms in the area Douglas was known for it’s Brick Works, a brick and tile making factory that was built in 1900 and finally closed in 1981. Most of the bricks that were used to build the towns and some of the infrastructure of the railroad were manufactured here from the local clay.
The railroad was just across the road from the Brick Works.
The Forgotten World Highway was originally pack trails in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. The Railroad construction from 1900 to 1936 brought more settlers, but the Depression of the 1930’s wiped many farmers out and they abandoned their homesteads. After traversing the eastern volcanic plain the Highway becomes extremely winding, going over 3 major saddles of mountains made up of ‘Papa rock’, a soft, blue-grey mudstone or muddy sandstone that was and still is a road planners worst nightmare! It is layered as in this bluff, when wet it is slippery and sometimes the layers of mudstone catch water between them and sheets or slabs slide off from time to time. When dry it can flake off in big slabs as well. We finally made it to our destination and enjoyed sandwiches and coffee at the Whangamomona Hotel.
It was a beautiful day for a drive and the Hotel was a welcome rest stop!