The North Island gets skipped by riders who fly into Christchurch and head straight for the Southern Alps, and that is a mistake. It has two roads that belong on any New Zealand list: State Highway 25 around the Coromandel Peninsula, a coastal loop of tight bays and hill crossings within easy reach of Auckland, and State Highway 43, the Forgotten World Highway, 148 km of near-empty back country between Stratford and Taumarunui through three saddles, a hand-cut tunnel and a self-declared republic. Riding season is roughly October to April.
Two very different kinds of road
The North Island is greener, warmer and much more populated than the South, and the riding reflects that. There are no 1,000 m alpine passes outside the volcanic plateau, and the interesting roads are not crossings of a mountain range but coastal contours and back-country routes through hill country that was logged, farmed and then partly abandoned.
The Coromandel gives you the coastal version: single-carriageway highway threading between the Firth of Thames and steep bush-covered hills, with a constant supply of corners and almost no straight sections. The Forgotten World Highway gives you the opposite — inland, empty, and genuinely remote, with no fuel for the entire 148 km and villages that have gone quiet since the railway that built them stopped mattering.
Between them sits the Desert Road, the section of State Highway 1 that crosses the Rangipo Desert / Te Onetapu east of the volcanoes. It is a straight road rather than a technical one, but its summit at 1,074 m is the highest pass on the entire New Zealand state highway network, and it is closed with barrier arms for short periods most winters.
Route at a glance
| Road | What it is |
|---|---|
| SH 25, Coromandel Peninsula | Single carriageway the whole way, up the western side from Thames and back down the east to Waihi; part of the Pacific Coast Highway and the country's third longest two-digit state highway |
| SH 25A, Kopu to Hikuai | 28.2 km cross-peninsula spur, opened 1967; closed by a major landslide in January 2023 and reopened with a new bridge in December 2023 |
| SH 43, Forgotten World Highway | 148 km, Stratford to Taumarunui, up to three hours; three saddles, the Moki Tunnel and the Tangarakau Gorge; no fuel anywhere on the route |
| SH 43 surface | The last 12 km of gravel through the Tangarakau Gorge was sealed in February 2025; the road remains very narrow in places |
| Desert Road, SH 1 | Crosses the Rangipo Desert; summit 1,074 m, the highest pass on the state highway network; closed briefly by snow most winters |
| Season | October to April is the settled window; June to September brings snow to the volcanic plateau |
Open the Forgotten World Highway in Google Maps — Stratford to Taumarunui via Whangamōmona, ready to send to your navigation before you lose signal.
The Forgotten World Highway, SH 43
The name is not marketing. This road runs 148 km through country that was opened up by the Stratford–Okahukura railway a century ago and then largely left alone, and several of the settlements strung along it are ghost towns from those railway days. Driving it takes up to three hours, which tells you most of what you need to know about the average speed.
It climbs three saddles — Strathmore, Whangamōmona and Tahora — with the road narrowing and tightening on each. About 14 km past Whangamōmona is the Moki Tunnel, a single-lane bore cut through the hill and universally known as the Hobbit's Hole. Near one end is the turnoff to Mount Damper Falls, the fourth highest waterfall in the North Island; past the other is the Tangarakau Gorge, where the walls stand just under 60 m above the road.
That gorge is the part with the history. Twelve kilometres of it were gravel until recently, making SH 43 the last state highway in New Zealand with an unsealed section, and the loose surface gave the road a bad enough safety record that Police ranked it among the ten worst in the country. Sealing was completed in February 2025. The gravel is gone, but the road is still very narrow in places and the corner radii have not changed.
Halfway along is Whangamōmona, which declared itself a republic in 1989 after a boundary revision moved it out of Taranaki. The hotel is the social centre of the entire highway and the only realistic mid-route stop for food.
The Coromandel Peninsula, SH 25
State Highway 25 leaves SH 2 on the Hauraki Plains, crosses the Waihou River at Kopu and reaches Thames, then turns north and runs up the western side of the peninsula with the Firth of Thames on one side and steep bush on the other. It is single carriageway for its entire length, it is windy in many parts, and it has a reputation for crashes that is a direct consequence of those two facts.
From Coromandel township the road cuts east across the peninsula to Kūaotunu, then turns south for Whitianga, Coroglen and Whenuakite before a genuinely good stretch of winding hill road into Tairua. South of the SH 25A junction near Hikuai it continues past Whangamatā and finishes at Waihi.
The cross-peninsula spur, SH 25A, is 28.2 km from Kopu to Hikuai and is the shortcut most traffic uses. It is worth knowing its recent history: a large landslide destroyed a section in January 2023 and closed it outright until a new bridge opened in December 2023. That is a useful illustration of how this region behaves — steep, wet, and prone to taking a road out overnight.
The timing advice is simple. Avoid the period around Christmas and New Year, when the peninsula fills with holiday traffic on a road that has nowhere to put it.
Season, weather and practical detail
Season. As of August 2026, none of these roads has a fixed seasonal closure. In southern hemisphere terms the settled riding window is October to April, with January and February the warmest and busiest. June to September is winter: the Coromandel stays rideable but wet, while the volcanic plateau gets snow and the Desert Road is closed with barrier arms for short periods most winters. Check the official journey planner for road status before any ride that crosses the plateau.
Fuel. This is the number that matters on SH 43. There are no petrol stations along the Forgotten World Highway, so fill up in Stratford or Taumarunui before you start. On the Coromandel the towns are close enough together that fuel is not an issue, but the northern part of the peninsula thins out.
Surface. Both regions are steep, wet and geologically young. Slips, washouts and single-lane sections after repairs are normal rather than exceptional. Rural side roads are frequently gravel and deposit loose stone onto the sealed surface at their junctions.
Bridges and lanes. Single-lane bridges are common on SH 43 and on side roads throughout the Coromandel. The sign indicates which direction has priority — a large arrow means you have it, a small one means give way. The Moki Tunnel is single lane with poor sight lines; slow down and use your headlight.
Coverage. Mobile signal on the Forgotten World Highway is intermittent to absent for long stretches, particularly through the Tangarakau Gorge and around the saddles. Assume no data for the full 148 km.
Gear notes for the North Island
The Forgotten World Highway is exactly the situation where live navigation fails. There is no signal, no fuel, no shop and, between the ghost towns, very little traffic to flag down. Having the full route stored before Stratford and running it on a GPS setup that works with no signal at all turns it from a commitment into a ride. It is also worth understanding how multi-constellation positioning behaves in a steep-sided gorge, because that is precisely the terrain where a single-system fix wanders.
Power matters for the same reason. Three hours of narrow road with a camera running, no charging stop and no cell signal for emergency calls makes battery a safety item rather than a convenience one. A bi-directional fast charger covers both the phone and the bike side of that.
On tyres, the relevant risk in both regions is stone. Gravel side-road junctions on the Coromandel and the freshly sealed but still narrow surface on SH 43 pick up debris constantly, and a slow puncture 60 km from Whangamōmona is a different problem from a slow puncture near a town. A TPMS sensor gives you the warning early, and a pre-ride check before the SH 43 run is worth the ten minutes. Riders on the JADO S6 keep the offline map and the pressure readout on one screen.
If you are combining islands, see the South Island loop and the national overview of the best motorcycle roads in New Zealand.
FAQ
Is the Forgotten World Highway still gravel?
No. The final 12 km of unsealed road through the Tangarakau Gorge was sealed in February 2025, ending its status as the last state highway in New Zealand with a gravel section. The road is still narrow in places, so the sealing has changed the grip, not the geometry.
Is there fuel on SH 43?
None. Fill up in Stratford or Taumarunui before you set out. At 148 km through empty country with no shops, this is the one piece of planning that genuinely matters.
How long does the Forgotten World Highway take?
Up to three hours of driving for the 148 km, and realistically longer on a bike once you have stopped at the Moki Tunnel, the gorge and Whangamōmona. Treat it as most of a day rather than a transit leg.
When should the Coromandel be avoided?
The period around Christmas and New Year, when holiday traffic fills a road that is single carriageway from end to end. Autumn, in March and April, gives you the same coastline with a fraction of the vehicles.
Is the Desert Road worth riding?
It is a straight road rather than a technical one, but it crosses genuinely strange volcanic desert and its 1,074 m summit is the highest pass on the state highway network. Check the status in winter, as it closes with barrier arms during snow most years.
