Morere Hill has Lost its Terrors

When the motor-car came into general use, roads were so poor that a motorist setting out on a long trip was not just a car-driver — he was also something of an adventurer. The Gisborne motorist had to be more than an adventurer. He had to be bold and reckless as well if he was to navigate the narrow, steep, winding tracks leading to the outside world.

The passage of time transformed the country's highways, but the transformation for Gisborne always lagged behind, and even today is not complete. The route over the Whareratas still has miles of substandard, one-car, up-and-down and roundabout roading, not much better than the district's most remote station access. For years the toughest part was Morere hill, immediately this side of Morere township. When the editor of "Photo Hews" come to Gisborne hauling a caravan, the surface was so rough, and the hill so steep, that he almost "ran out of gears", hasn't got over the shock yet.

But today, Morere Hill, except for the finishing touches, is a broad highway up which motorists can, if they want, cruise at 50 m.p.h. It is a happy harbinger of the day when the whole route will be modernised in the same way.

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Gordon Tait, of Morere, took "Photo News" a thousand feet up a hill on a tractor to get this view of the new highway

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Looking down the new highway. It is still steep, but is wide and has no sharp bends.

In country where hot springs and cold springs flow in valleys and on mountaintops, where a contractor digging a cutting can and does find four or five different types of spoil to move, the work of the road-builder is difficult.

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In the picture above, taken at top of the completed road, motorists are required to turn right on to the old route, while the new cutting at left "settles".

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Top cutting, which has been bedevilled by slips and springs. (note car passing on old road at top of cutting.)

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Looking down the troublesome top cutting, only part of the hill road not completed.

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Picture Taken At Top Of Hill
New road
Old road
Water seepage, even in drought
Temporary road

Fouhy, Mahar & Thomp­son Ltd., of Masterton, contractors for the big job, are now working on the road just below the Morere hotel, where the pictures on these two pages were taken.

Photographer on this job had to be a nimble dozer-dodger, with ten machines dashing hither and yon at high speeds.

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Machines tearing into blue papa rock in cutting south of Morere.

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Daddy of them all is the 34–ton Euclid pic­tured at left, which will scrape up, carry, and spread 45 tons of spoil. Each end has a powerful motor. The huge tubeless tyres are worth £1400 each.