State Highway 43 (New Zealand)
New Zealand State Highway 43, also called the Forgotten World Highway, is a road that runs 148 km from Stratford in Taranaki to Taumarunui in the King Country. It contained the last unsealed portion of the New Zealand state highway network.
Route description
The road passes through small towns such as Toko, Douglas, Te Wera, Pohukura, Strathmore, Whangamōmona, Marco, Koruatahi, Tahora, Tatu, and 10 km off the highway is Ōhura. In the 1920s the Stratford–Okahukura Line was built. Many of the ghost towns are from the railway days.Driving the highway takes up to 3 hours, as it passes through rugged countryside. It climbs three saddles: the Strathmore Saddle, Whangamōmona Saddle, and Tahora Saddle. 14 km past Whangamōmona is the Moki Tunnel, also known as Hobbit's Hole. Near one end of the Moki Tunnel is the turn off for the Mount Damper Falls, the fourth-highest in the North Island, and past the other end is the Tangarakau Gorge, with walls just under 60m high.
of the road through Tarangakau Gorge was unsealed for many years. This made SH 43 the only state highway that had an unsealed section. There is also an unsealed section in the middle of, but that portion is not designated a state highway. A 2017 report stated that sealing the Tangarakau Gorge road would cost approximately $7m. In December 2019, the government allocated funding to seal the final section of unsealed highway. The sealing work was completed in February 2025.