One of the most interesting features of the Forgotten World Highway is the saddles after Whangamōmona. These are Whangamōmona Saddle, then Pohukura, and Strathmore. The former is in a section of native forest, but the two latter are high points that look over eroding and steep, but still farmed, landscapes.
Some panels describe the difficulties of building the road over the saddles because of weather and erosion problems. When you look at the surrounding sharp-edged hills, it is hard to understand why anyone bothered in the first place!
On this drive, the weather also changed dramatically, as if to underwrite how exposed earlier travellers would have been.
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