Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Whanganui River - the lifeblood of Whanganui National Park - curls 290km from
its source on Mt Tongariro to the Tasman Sea. It's the longest navigable river in NZ, and
today conveys canoes, kayaks and jetboats, its waters shifting from deep mirror greens in
summer to turbulent winter browns.
The native bush here is thick podocarp broad-leaved forest interspersed with ferns.
Occasionally you'll see poplar and other introduced trees along the river, remnants of
long-vanished settlements. Traces of Maori settlements also appear, with old
pa
(fortified
village) and
kainga
(village) sites, and Hauhau
niu
(war and peace) poles at the conver-
gence of the Whanganui and Ohura Rivers at Maraekowhai.
The impossibly scenic Whanganui River Rd, a partially unsealed river-hugging road
from Whanganui to Pipiriki, makes a fabulous alternative to the faster but less magical
SH4.
History
In Maori legend the Whanganui River was formed when Mt Taranaki, after brawling
with Mt Tongariro over the lovely Mt Pihanga, fled the central North Island for the sea,
leaving a long gouge behind him. He turned west at the coast, finally stopping at his cur-
rent address. Mt Tongariro sent cool water to heal the gouge - thus the Whanganui River
was born.
Kupe, the great Polynesian explorer, is believed to have travelled 20km up the Whan-
ganui around AD 800; Maori lived here by 1100. By the time Europeans put down roots
in the late 1830s, Maori settlements lined the river valley. Missionaries sailed upstream
and their settlements - at Hiruharama, Ranana, Koriniti and Atene - have survived to this
day.
Paddle steamers first tackled the river in the mid-1860s. In 1886 a Whanganui com-
pany established the first commercial steamer transport service. Others soon followed,
utilising the river between Whanganui and Taumarunui.
NZ's contemporary tourism leviathan was seeded here. Internationally advertised trips
on the 'Rhine of Maoriland' became so popular that by 1905, 12,000 tourists a year were
making the trip upriver from Whanganui to Pipiriki or downriver from Taumarunui. The
engineering feats and skippering ability required on the river became legendary.
From 1918 land upstream of Pipiriki was granted to returning WWI soldiers. Farming
here was a major challenge, with many families struggling for years to make the rugged
land productive. Only a few endured into the early 1940s.
