Based on the route of a track established in the 1880s, the Ohakune to Horopito Coach Road was paved in 1906, and for two years served to link the northern and southern railheads of the North Island Main Trunk Line (NIMT).
In 1870, prompted by the then Colonial Treasurer Sir Julius Vogel (1835-1899), the Government adopted bold, expansionist policies that would bring thousands of assisted immigrants to New Zealand to construct roads, railways, bridges, and telegraph lines. Part of the policy was to create a 'Main Trunk Line' that would connect the country's two main cities, Auckland and Wellington, by rail. To achieve this, approximately 200 miles (322 kilometres) of rail would have to be constructed between Marton and Te Awamutu, to connect lines that were already in operation. In 1884, surveyor John Rochfort (1832-1893) completed his survey for the route of the proposed line. Construction work began at the northern railhead at Te Awamutu to the following year. By 1906 the northern railhead had reached Raurimu, while the southern had come as far as Tuangarere. Yet the mountainous terrain between these two areas caused considerable difficulties for the engineers of the Public Works Department, and work had to be stopped until solutions for crossing the region could be devised. This meant that passengers travelling between Auckland and Wellington had to travel across the 'gap' between the two railheads by some other means.
The preferred solution was to construct a road that was suitable for coach traffic between the two railheads. In 1904 a report to Parliament stated that 'The service road will have to be carried through sooner or later, and as soon as it is completed, a light coach can be run from the railhead at the Auckland end to Raetihi'...'.
The makings of this road already existed in some areas between the two railheads. Between Horopito and Ohakune, work creating a track following a route explored by Rochfort had commenced in 1886. By the end of that year, approximately 6 ½ miles (10.4 kilometres) of track had been constructed from the Ohakune end. This completed track, which carried through to Waimarino (north of Horopito), was depicted as a bridle track on a map in 1889. In 1895, approximately £1,131-2-3 was spent upgrading the road to a dray road. It was noted that, as the road was part of the 'though road' the work should be pushed forward.
In 1906, work constructing the route between the two railheads commenced. The portion of the route between Ohakune and Horopito was to follow the track first created in 1886, which would be upgraded to make it suitable for coach traffic.
Under the supervision of Engineer-in-Chief, Robert West Holmes (1856-1936), and Resident Engineer-in-Change, Frederick William Furkert (1876-1949), the track was upgraded to withstand the extreme weather conditions of the Ruapehu region. In 1906, approximately £3,900-0-0 was spent on the upgrade project. The 3.6 metre (12 foot) wide road was built on an easy and constant gradient, and was paved with tightly fitted, hand-carved setts. Interlocking blocks along the road edges held the setts in position, and a network of culverts and side drains protected the road from water damage.
The Public Works employees who constructed the road lived in camps, sometimes with their families, often in primitive conditions. One such camp for the coach road was at Te Rangakapou, which was somewhere near the site of the surviving quarry. The government supplied camp tents, although the men were responsible for their repair and replacement. Such tents may have had timber components, such as wall slabs, or corrugated iron chimneys. Bunks were, in one recollection, constructed of bush vines with tightly stretched sacking. The food was basic - either corned beef or bacon, with vegetables grown on site. The only fresh meat available was native birds.
The labour involved in the construction of the road was, like much of the work on the main trunk railway, backbreaking and tedious, particularly during winter, when the weather could be bitter. Historian Michael Kelly considered the work, noting that:
The required width of road had to be formed beyond the existing pack track. The rock for the paving had to be blown off the quarry faces, then worked into the required shape. Two kinds of paving rocks were required; the setts and boundary stones.
In 1906 it was reported that 'Every effort is being made to put this road, between the railheads at the northern and southern ends, into practicable order for summer coach traffic'. The service road had been completed from the north to the Makatote Stream and, in the south, approximately a third of a service road of 6.5 miles had been metalled. The road was finally completed in December 1906, and was officially named the 'Matapuna-Ohakune Coach Road'. In 1907 it was reported to Parliament that 'a coach service has been established on a good metalled road constructed by the department in conjunction with the railway works'.
The first coach to travel along the new road ran on 11 November 1906. Passengers of the Public Works Department trains transferred to a Cobb & Co. coach in which they covered the 'rail gap'. Timetabled to link with the trains, the daily coach service took approximately four hours.
Early in 1908, a reporter from The Wanganui Herald took the rail-coach-rail trip from Wellington to Auckland. He travelled to Taihape on New Zealand Railways and from there on the PWD train; the railheads were then at Ohakune and Waimarino. This is his description of the journey from Ohakune to Horopito.
The coaches meet the trail, which runs right up into the virgin bush, the foliage of the huge trees arching overhead. Quite an imposing array of vehicles - about nine in number - awaits the passengers, who can step off the train on to the wooden platform improvised from fallen logs, and board the coach without getting to the ground. It is a strange sight this, the train run right in amongst the trees, which have not here been cleared from the side of the track, and the collection of coaches in the heart of the bush. The overland route affords sights, which will not be available when the train tears through from Auckland to Wellington in 20 hours. Some of the vehicles go to the Ohakune settlement...while five are requisitioned to convoy the overland passengers. About a dozen board our coach, and with five good horses - three in the lead - we are soon rattling along over a good service road, which is metalled from quarries situated at convenient spots along the route. The metal is coarse in places and one jocular passenger estimated 433 bumps in the first quarter of an hour, and then declared his inability to keep further tally! A telephone wire accompanies the road, suspended to trees along the track, hanging in loops and jerking round angles, which would make a city lineman shed tears. Presently we reach a little bush settlement called Te Raungakapu, where mail is delivered and the passengers regale themselves with hop beer. The railway line is crossed at this spot by the road, which afterwards climbs up a thickly wooded hill, winding in and out to negotiate the hill, winding in and out to negotiate the gullies. A way down below - 300 feet, the driver will tell you - is the railway track, itself more than 2600 feet above the sea, so that the road just here must be nearly 3000 feet high. The line is crossed again at Taonui Viaduct, which is already planked and railed, and waiting the rail connection either side. Passengers are invited to walk across the viaduct and some of the more adventurous spirits do so while the coach winds around the road underneath. It is about 100 feet high and is built on a distinct curve, but the iron and wire railing gives one a sense of security.
By 1908, the engineering problems that had delayed the completion of the NIMT had been overcome. Viaducts had been erected over the deep valleys of Ruapehu, and the 'Raurimu Spiral' had been devised. As construction of the railheads progressed, the terminus of the coach service was relocated. In the north it moved to Oio, Raurimu, and then Erua. In the south it relocated to Mataroa, and Waiouru. On 6 November 1908, the then Prime Minister Joseph George Ward (1856-1930) drove the 'last spike' into the NIMT, completing the line. Regular passenger services between Auckland and Wellington commenced later that same year.
No longer required to 'close the gap' between the railheads, the use of the Coach Road diminished. An area of the road was asphalted, and now forms part of State Highway 4. The section between Horopito and Ohakune was replaced with an alternative route and, consequently, remained untouched. It was used intermittently by local residents, and was still in use in the early 1960s when the Ohakune District Council put logs over the eastern end of the middle section to prevent vehicle access. It then became overgrown and part of the road was stopped in 1965. In 1987, a major deviation of the main trunk line, including the construction of a new Hapuawhenua Viaduct, was completed. As part of this work, a large cutting near the Taonui Viaduct divided the coach road in two. Much fill from this cutting was dumped on the road. Today the Road has taken on the appearance of a green walkway, and is used for recreational purposes.
