Passing through a large private forestry block, Mamaku South Road runs from East of Tokoroa via Mossop Road through to the village of Mamaku, 20km out of Rotorua. There may be access via other roads at the Tokoroa end but many of the roads in this area are private forestry access only so more exploring would be required. Several of the forestry roads look like normal sealed public roads complete with road markings but are signed as private, Mossop Road is specifically marked as public road.
From the South end Mamaku South Road is smooth and well maintained as it passes through diary and sheep farms before heading into the forest. Once in the forest the track surface becomes quite potholed, presumable due to the heavy forest traffic, it can also be quite bare of gravel which means in the wet the clay surface can be slippery.
Along it’s way Mamauku South Road changes name to just South Road which according to maps runs all the way through to Mamaku village and should be public access all the way, however unfortunately when I was mapping this I snapped the throttle cable on my DR and had to limp back to Tokoroa.
As this is an active farming and forestry area a variety of traffic could be on the road at any time, keep an eye out for logging trucks particularly.
Contributed by: @eddieb
Track type: Gravel Road
Track composition: Bumpy, Firm, Undulating
Slippery when wet? Yes
Suitable for bikes <650cc? Beginner
Suitable for bikes >650cc? Beginner
River crossings? No
I returned to Mamaku yesterday to finish mapping this track and had a mostly good run through, although it starting raining and my visor fogged and up so I couldn’t ride with it down, the rain was that really light stinging on the eyeballs rain so that made it fun.
I also had a close call with a local farmer who thought road rules didn’t apply to him, had I been 5 seconds faster I might have been a new hood ornament on his maroon toyota.
The road is still in firm condition, though there was quite a lot of corrugations on the corners, unfortunately when i got home I discovered my GPS software hadn’t recorded anything so the GPX download track is still only half complete.
In front of the “Worlds Greatest Rail Tractor” in Mamaku.
On the big map this road is near hawera.
needs moving to south waikato
Thanks @sarah linton Not sure what’s happened there but I’ll check it out.