Report and photos by Ashley Lucas
Most of my driving of the Hyundai Terracan Tales vehicle had been road use apart from a day in the Woodhill Forest which is sand-based. As I had a need to go down country for a few days finalising details for our forthcoming Readers’ Trip in November it would give me the chance to try out the vehicle over a number of different road types and conditions. In the end the vehicle covered 1200km of farm tracks, winding metal back country roads, tarsealed roads of varying conditions as well as motorways getting out of and back into Auckland.
Readers’ trip preparations underway, the Terracan was headed west on State Highway 37 past the Waitomo Caves. This road winds around the hills and valleys heading for Te Anga. Along the way there are natural features to stop and look at such as the Piripiri Caves, the Marokopa Falls and the Mangapohue Natural Bridge. The latter is a 17m-high limestone arch spanning the Mangapohue stream and is all that remains of an ancient underground river system that has collapsed over time. The stalactite-studded ceiling is evidence of what was once a giant underground cavern and is well worth the five minute walk from the road. On the track you can also see oyster fossils 30 million years old. If you visit at night glow worms appear and, if you’re extra lucky, long tailed bats.
From Te Anga it’s a short drive north to the village of Taharoa and the Taharoa iron sand mining.
The ironsand (titanomagnetite) was formed through the breakdown of rocks originating from volcanic activity in Taranaki 2.5 million years ago. Over time, the heavy, dark sands were transported by ocean currents and deposited on beaches, forming dunes of up to 90m high. The black iron sands have intrigued people with their magnetic qualities for centuries, but it wasn’t until the 1950s, with both the local economy and steel demand growing, that serious consideration was given to utilising this valuable resource in a home-grown steel industry. The government established the New Zealand Steel Investigating Company in 1959 to determine the technical and economic feasibility of manufacturing steel from indigenous raw materials. The Taharoa mine site covers an area of 1300ha, and is leased from the local Maori landowners. Mining commenced in 1972 and there is a monument opened by Prime Minister Norman Kirk in November 1973 to symbolise the co-operation between NZ Steel and the people of Taharoa.
Sand is extracted from a pond by a floating dredge, then conveyed to an adjacent floating concentration plant for processing. The concentration plant produces between 200 and 300 tonnes of magnetic concentrate an hour. The concentrate is extracted from the raw sand in a series of separation processes, and then pumped in slurry form to a stockpiling area two kilometres away. The slurry is pumped via pipeline to an off-shore single buoy mooring (SBM), where it is transferred to a bulk carrier fitted with special dewatering equipment. The delivery system to the SBM is capable of pumping 2500 dry long tonnes per hour through two pipelines.
At present there is only one vessel in operation, the 143,000 DWT bulk carrier Taharoa Express. Here is the interesting part; the Taharoa Express was built in South Korea by none other than Hyundai Heavy Industries, a division of the Hyundai Corporation that made our Terracan. As I sat above Taharoa looking out to sea, I wondered if the Terracan was manufactured from steel made from the very iron sands now before us.
On the road out of Taharoa we pulled off the road as a larger transporter was approaching with an 85-Tonne bulldozer heading for the Taharoa mines. The lead truck was also being assisted by another similar truck pushing from behind and there was no way they wanted to stop half way up the hill! It was an impressive sight as the two trucks worked hard, climbing the hills and having to take corners very wide due to the overall length.
Heading southwest it was a short drive through the valley to Marokopa. It had been years since I was last here and that was when I was a youngster and we travelled down with my father who was cutting native timber way back up in the bush in the late ’sixties. We used to head up back into the hills and camp for a few days while dad cut timber ready to be transported out to the mills by truck. The Caterpillar D7 bulldozer that was used back then is small in compared to the 85-tonne monster I had seen earlier. The very same D7 still exists today but is all but abandoned high on a hill about 30km northeast from Marokopa on a farm. One of its last jobs was putting through a track on farmland that will be used in the forthcoming reader’s trip and participants will pass the old machine.
The hills are now cleared and as I passed a topdressing plane was fertilising the hills since cleared of the bush.
Marokopa is where the large tidal Marokopa River flows into the Tasman Sea. It is a popular place with fisherman and of course whitebait abounds with people marking out their favourite spots to put their nets in. At the river mouth you are allowed to drive onto the beach but signs do warn of the dangers.
The weather was perfect and it was easy to just kick back and soak up the early spring sunshine but the Terracan waited. By now I was comfortable behind the wheel even if there were a couple of criticisms. I had finally got used to having to have the clutch fully depressed before you can start the engine. I didn’t get into the situation but it would be a problem if ever a failed hill start was required. The other is not so much a criticism of the vehicle but a combination of items that needed attention. The Terracan was affectionately named the Vibrator as it had a vibration that at times seemed to go through the entire car. On the road you got to hear the tools in the toolbox rattling quietly away. The problem would appear to stem from a combination of unbalanced tyres and incorrect wheel alignment. The tyres are the 255/70/16 Goodyear Wrangler MTs fitted earlier this year and have since seen 19,000km of use on- and off-road and one has probably lost a wheel weight somewhere along the line. As the vehicle also has a slight tendency to veer left, requiring a little right-hand-down weight on the wheel to keep it on the straight and narrow, it is time to have the wheel alignment checked. By the time I returned it was due for its next service so I am sure this will have been attended to by the time you are reading this.
Driving the Terracan is easy though and I headed south from Marokopa clocking up more kilometres. Heading down through Kiritehere towards Awakino I expected a narrow winding metal road. There was metal and yes, there was no other traffic, at least not until I got close to Awakino, but the road crews had been working and the roads were showing signs of recent upgrading. After a few kilometres of metal the road was tarsealed for the steep climb over Mangatoa Saddle. Once down in the valleys again the road followed the Managanui River as it wound its way south to the Awakino River. Along the way there was a lot of forestry activity, this time using more modern methods cutting exotic pine.
As by chance the journey was heading down memory lane with all the logging operation of past and present, I had thought about checking out another area at Awakino that dad logged in the early 1970s. But just before coming out on to State Highway 3 to Awakino I noticed a large yellow warning sign on a side road. It warned of "narrow winding road for 22km and unsuitable for heavy vehicles." Like a red rag to a bull, I had to check this out.
Taumatamarie Road was marked on my maps and appeared to loop up over the hills above the Awakino Gorge and rejoin SH 3 just south of Mahoenui. A quick check of the fuel situation, still three quarter full so off we went. The road was indeed narrow and wound up the hills, but I was to learn that it got even narrower further on. At first it was open sheep country with spectacular views all around. The road gets as high as 435m where there is the Taumatamarie Microwave Tower. Just before the tower there were clear views of Mt Taranaki and Mt Ruapehu. The day was exceptionally clear and I could also get glimpses of the snow-covered peaks of the South Island.
The road continued on and got noticeably narrower in places, as it passed through young pine forestry. It then started to drop back down and the corners were blind and tight at times. I put the Terracan into high 4WD just to have better control even though I was only travelling slowly. It would have been interesting if I had met an oncoming vehicle, as there was little room to pass.
It wasn’t long before I was jolted back into the real world. After four days in areas where there was no cellphone coverage, the mobile burst into life with a pile a messages, including one from the boss checking "to make sure I hadn’t gone over a cliff or something like that," but I am sure he was more worried about where his Terracan was!
Footnote; after 1200kmof mostly back country road driving and farm tracks the Terracan returned a pleasing 12.8 litres per 100km. .
