Gentle Annie - Unsealed section - easy or not?

[Pixie]

I was looking at the unsealed section of the Napier to Taihape Rd on Google Earth - It appears fairly straight (no ultra tight bits) and smooth with no great changes in elevation.

Is this appraisal accurate?

[slimjim]

yup easy ride..plenty of roadworks and straighten of corners..but soon to be sealed..so do it now or soon its tarsealed all the way...

[MSTRS]

I was looking at the unsealed section of the Napier to Taihape Rd on Google Earth - It appears fairly straight (no ultra tight bits) and smooth with no great changes in elevation.

Is this appraisal accurate?

Not entirely. But not too bad. Can be badly corrugated at times, and you don't want to ride it if its's freshly gravelled.

[banditrider]

Been ages since I've ridden it but it's normally not too bad. PM Bonez, he's probably been over fairly recently...

[PeteJ]

The only really difficult bit was sealed ages ago.

[Cary]

Yep, easy as.

[Elysium]

Just watch out for deep tyre groves as I got caught out on one those. Another danger is hooning 4wds comming around corners.

[Bonez]

Few areas before you get to the GA have deep ruts and fairly think gravel. Gravel varies from the finer stuff(most of the unsealed portion-generally good going unless its freshly dumped chip) to small bolders in places. Is steep in places too. So steep Gunny Robs bemmer sheered a drive spline ;). Keep an eye out for roading contrators, logging trucks, etc. Other than whats already mentioned a good we romp. Some awesome veiws to be had. Well worth it.

[Pixie]

Thanks for the info.

PS on high res sections of Google earth you can see the white lines on the road and thus tell if it is sealed

[Outlaw_Torn]

Thanks for the info.

PS on high res sections of Google earth you can see the white lines on the road and thus tell if it is sealed

I was working over at Kuripapango last week. the roads arent too bad, a couple of nasty ruts just before the campground on the napier end of the GA, and the other side past the Comet road are quite heavily corrugated. otherwise shouldnt make for too bad a ride...

Just a heads up, theyve started stopped logging out of Kuri itself, but are taking out of the Lawrence road (near Blowhard Bush) and the grader went through on thursday so fairly thick metal in places...

[popelli]

Did gentle annie once

Biggest obstacle was logging trucks coming at you not necessarily on their side of the road

Would I do it again, in short no

[greenman]

Hi,
Did it on my ZZR11 2 years back, I didn't have any problems, just keep it slow on the gravel and watch out for 4WD trying to push you off the road. Once you're on the seal again it's happy days.

[cs363]

Aren't they supposed to be sealing the whole thing imminently?

[MSTRS]

Aren't they supposed to be sealing the whole thing imminently?

Up until now, the responsibility for this road lay shared by Hastings District Council and Rangitikei DC. Historically, the seal started at the 2 ends and slowly progressed towards the middle, with the exception of the hill right in the centre (the actual Gentle Annie) being sealed. Currently there is gravel for about 10km on the Hastings side and 25km 'ish on the Taihape side. As I understand things, Transit (now NZTA) will be (have?) assuming authority, will allocate a highway number to the road and finish sealing it right through. Contrary to what you might think, this will not improve the road. The seal will be torn to bits by the logging trucks and be poorly maintained/repaired, every dickhead in his campervan will be up there, as will be every Rossi-wannabe. The locals don't want this, and I don't blame them.
It's the same as the road from Wairoa to Waikaremoana...the locals, esp the accident attenders, don't want it sealed, because the increase in speeds and traffic volumes will make their lives a misery.