Gentle Annie Road, Central Plateau, New Zealand

Gentle Annie Road, Central Plateau, New Zealand

Description: This road, known historically as Gentle Annie, is now a lot gentler on travellers than it used to be.
Until recently (2011), the route was full of sections of rough gravel. These days the surface is sealed all the way, allowing a far more comfortable drive through a spectacular part of the North Island.
If travelling the Gentle Annie from west to east, you leave Taihape and immediately climb the Central Plateau.
Here you'll find picturesque high-country sheep stations like Erewhon and Springvale - this often bleak country is particularly suited to farming the merino breed, with its high-quality, hollow-fibre wool.
Erewhon - "nowhere" backwards - takes its name from Samuel Butler's influential 1872 novel. It's an apt name for such an isolated place.
From the merino country the road swiftly plunges into a spectacular gorge of the Rangitikei River, where a weathered old suspension bridge still resides alongside the concrete and steel structure that replaced it in 1974.
On a clear day, the climb out of the gorge back onto tussock lands rewards travellers with views of the volcanoes of the Central Plateau.
(source: www.stuff.co.nz)

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Keywords: Gentle Annie Road, New Zealand, Central Plateau, Samuel Butler, Erewhon, Taihape-Napier Road, Taihape, Napier, road, landscape, farm, Gentle Annie, Inland Patea Heritage Trail

Exif: Exposure: 1/320, Aperture: 11.0, ISO: 200

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