Bridge to Nowhere

After the First World War the government opened land in the Mangapurua Valley to returned soldiers as farm blocks, and a road was cut in to serve them. The soil was poor, the terrain steep, the Depression arrived, and by the late 1930s the settlers had gone. The bridge, finished in concrete in 1936 to replace a swing bridge, was completed almost exactly as the valley emptied - it served for a few years and then the road either side was abandoned and the forest took it back. What stands now is a substantial arch bridge, forty metres above the Mangapurua Stream, in regrown bush with no road approaching from either direction. It is reached by a forty-minute walk from a landing on the Whanganui River, so the trip means a jet boat or a canoe. Fence posts, chimney sites and exotic trees mark the old farms along the track.

What you actually see

• The 1936 bridge - concrete, forty metres up, with no road at either end.
• The regrown valley - forest that took back the farms.
• The farm traces - chimneys, fence lines and planted trees along the track.
• The river access - jet boat or canoe, the only ways in.

When to go

October to April. Jet boat trips run from Pipiriki and Whakahoro and need booking. On the Whanganui Journey it is a standard side trip from Mangapurua Landing.

Honest expectations

There is no road access at all - the boat or canoe is the trip and the cost. The walk in is forty minutes and often muddy. River levels affect jet boat operation. Sandflies.

Nearby

The Whanganui River runs past it; Pipiriki and Whakahoro are the access points.