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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 6 (October 1, 1932.)

The Old Highway Along the Beach

The Old Highway Along the Beach.

Before the present railway and inland road were made, the only highway along this west coast of Wellington was the ocean beach, stretching away as far as the eye can trace its sands and line of surf. For seventy-five miles, from Paekakariki to the mouth of the Manawatu River, the old-time mail and passenger coaches ran, fording the smaller rivers, crossing the larger ones by punt. At Otaki beach there was a turn-off to the township, where a night was spent. The page 26 beach was followed in this way nearly the whole distance from Wanganui.

Long ago, five centuries ago in fact, there was a Maori traveller named Hau, who trudged all the way down the coast from Taranaki, naming the places as he travelled. It was he who gave the names to the various rivers from the Rangitikei to Waikanae. In the pakeha coaching days just referred to, a poetical jeu-d'esprit on the names of these rivers was perpetrated by an Auckland member of Parliament (the late Mr. J. A. Tole, a well-known lawyer of other days, and for many years Crown Prosecutor in Auckland). The point of the doggerel is only attained by atrocious mispronunciation of some of the names. This was the coach passenger's wail as he came to one bad river after another:

“Ohau shall I cross this swift river Ohau? Waikanae not swim to the shore? Otaki a boat and row rapidly o'er In the Manawatu did before? Oroua way gently, for life in a boat Is a Horowhenua afloat.”

The hereinbefore-mentioned explorer Hau did not get very far beyond Paekakariki on his southward way. But he left his mark in the country before he vanished from history. Finding it difficult to get round that rocky Cape Te Paripari (“Cliff upon Cliff”), the butt-end of the Paekakariki Range, he called upon his gods to make a way through for him, and they promptly made a cave through the end of the headland, close to the sea, and he passed through this magic tunnel, which may be seen there to this day. When you plunge in and out of the railway tunnels in the train, give a thought to the pioneer Hau, who had his cave-tunnel cut for him in a moment, without any fuss or gelignite.