The ‘Gentle Annie’ is the name of the high-country road that tracks it’s way through the valleys and headwalls of the mighty Ruahine Ranges. It connects Napier to Taihape along a 130 kilometre long route (of which 46 kilometres is unsealed) over mountainous hills and through steep ravines.

Local lore reveals that it was the Maori hunter Patea who first crossed this range in the early 15^th century. Apparently he often took to the hills on hunting expeditions and to avoid his nagging wife. One day, the poor henpecked husband returned home after a lengthy expedition to another earbashing after he’d failed to bring home the bacon, so on the next trip he invited his wife along. Somehow on this next trip Patea’s wife ‘fell’ off a cliff never to be seen again, and rather than return home to face her relatives, Patea strove over the saddle of the Gentle Annie and into the interior that has been known as inland Patea ever since.

By the 1870s, the interior became a centre of merino wool production, with the only way to market being Patea’s route back to the Port of Napier. In its heyday, it was the longest and busiest trail in New Zealand, and remained so until the main trunk line opened in 1908.

Over the course of history, hundred have lost their lives on this route. It was not uncommon for packhorses, laden with wool, to lose their footing and plunge hundreds of metres to the gorge below.

We’d read about the ‘Gentle Annie’ several times before, and its promises of grand high-country views and a faster and more scenic route for us to Ohakune from Napier (we are skiing later this week) meant we had to give it a go. So stuffed full of fuel and water, we set off.

Bridge at Inland Patea

Sadly Mother Nature had other plans for our afternoon, and the grandiose views were veiled under dark clouds for most of the trip. We carefully climbed and descended the slippery gravel roads, and marvelled at what the views of the Central Plateau could look like if we could actually see them. Then it started snowing.

That's snow falling out there as darkness approaches

With dusk falling, we continued on, mindful that it was too ruddy cold to camp up on Gentle Annie, and that if we stopped now, we might become snowbound by morning. The mercury continued to plummet as the snow fell, and the drive became slower as we became more aware of the increasing danger of ‘black ice’.

Fortunately the ol’ girl got us through to Taihape safely, where beneath the ghastly cloud layer we got to see the last of the glorious evening sunset – Gentle Annie having being dressed in black and white for most of the trip.

So now we can join the herds of other motorhomers who say they have travelled the Gentle Annie. However given we missed out on most of the views, we’ll now have to do it all over again another day.

Taihape Holiday Park (love the chalets!)

Feeding time at the zoo