Kawhia Road is used as a name for many roads around the Kawhia area. SH31, the main highway into Kawhia is named Kawhia Road, the Kawhia to Raglan route starts as Raglan Road at it’s southern end but changes it’s name to Kawhia Road after about 10km as you head North, and Bridal Veil Falls, a local scenic destination well worth a look is also ‘Kawhia Road’, which according to signposts is a dead end road.
For this track we are concerned with the section of road between Bridal Veil Falls and the Kawhia to Raglan route where Kawhia Road turns into Te Papatapu Road.
This section of Kawhia Road is signposted as No Exit at both ends and was closed for an extended period of time due to a large slip but that slip has long since been cleared. The road does still get a lot of slips and washouts however and at the northern end particularly there is a lot of evidence of land slips and it could be blocked again at any time.
Kawhia Road is fairly narrow and over it’s 9.25km length varies from deep loose gravel to hardpacked dirt, open flat to windy steep sections and has many blind corners. There are views of valleys, marshes, derelict houses, and the windmills of the Te Uku windfarm along the way.
Contributed by: @eddieb
Track type: Gravel Road
Track composition: Bumpy, Loose, Undulating
Slippery when wet?: No
Suitable for bikes <650cc? Intermediate
Suitable for bikes >650cc? Intermediate
River crossings? No
Looking for a ride this arvo. This looks like fun
Is Te Papatapu Road still as good as it used to be? I should head out that way sometime and check it out, go along Kawhia Road and then along Te Papatapu road. The last time I was there, I was in a car. I did stop and take a few hundred photos though.
Not everyone was enjoying it. In the photo is my cousin, also getting lots of photos.
This guy was enjoying it more:
Had a great ride encompassing old mountain road, kawhia road, raglan road, ruapuke rd, whanga rd. Beautiful day, three hours or so on metal roads of various condition, open and closed. Oh yeah, then I fell off just after the cattle :-(. Just finished straightening it out though :-). I think I took a wrong turn and missed out on some of Kawhia road, no signal to check on the pic below I followed what was signposted as Kawhia Road. I may have to go back another day to check it out.
I went for a ride along Kawhia road, then on to Te Papatapu and turned onto Te Hutewai Rd through to Raglan.
Found a nice spot on Te Hutewai Road for a photo:
There is planty of gravel on Te Papatapu & Te Hutewai roads, they really should be marked on the map as gravel roads.