Bridge to Nowhere

Tuesday and Wednesday last week were not your normal 9-5 in the office day at work. I was off with half of my department for a team building field trip. Since we unfortunately did not have the luxury of completely stopping business for two days, the other half are off for their adventures this week.

At 6 am on Tuesday we boarded a bus and began the 4 hour journey to Pipiriki. It was a relatively quiet bus ride due to the early start. Once we got to Pipiriki we boarded jet boats for a 30km ride upriver to the lodge where we would stay the night. The lodge was perched on top of a hill with a gorgeous view overlooking the river. It is a homestead type of place, with chickens, super cute dogs, and power only from a generator run during the day.

The lodge had lunch waiting for us, so we enjoyed the view out on the deck while filling up on enough energy for the afternoon activities.

Once we’d settled in a bit and finished lunch, we boarded the jet boats again to head a bit further up river to the Mangapurua for the hike to the Bridge to Nowhere. It was about a 45 min hike along a good trail through the bush. We got to cross a swing bridge close to our destination. The Bridge to Nowhere was over a canyon, pretty well in the middle of nowhere (not to be too punny). We were fortunate to have one of the lodge staff along with us who shared quite a lot of history about the bridge, and had photos from when it was first put up, as well as some of the area around the bridge’s location.

From one of the abandoned homesteads

Once we had our fill of bridges and hiking we headed back to the lodge for some work-type discussions with the managers, with positive updates on things to expect in the next couple of years. We then had dinner and the evening to relax and enjoy the good company.

The next morning after breakfast we headed home. This meant we got to enjoy the river scenery again on the 30km ride back to Pipiriki to get our bus. The Wanganui river is gorgeous, with sections of it running between cliffs on both sides. Canoeing a portion of it is definitely on my NZ to-do list now J

A bit of info on the Bridge to Nowhere:

Soldiers returning from World War I were offered land in the Mangapurua and Kaiwhakauka valleys as a government project to help them and their families settle. The idea seemed to be that it would allow them to have their own land, while also developing an untouched part of the country. One major obstacle was reliable road access. As part of a project to improve this, a swing bridge was built over the Mangapurua Streatm in 1919. However, it was not terribly sturdy or reliable or so in the 1930s work began to build the concrete bridge currently in existence. It was meant to be part of a road from Raetihi to Taranaki, which would have greatly improved the access for this area.

At the settlements peak there were a total of 46 farms. However, by 1942 only three of those remained. There were many hardships, including erosion, flooding, and economic hardship from the depression. The area is now called the “valley of abandoned dreams” and the bridge to nowhere is used more in modern days than it was first built for everyday purposes.  

What is left of the original swing bridge