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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 7 (October 1, 1936)

Over the Range

Over the Range.

Tirohanga-Kawhia— “The View of Kawhia” —is the very appropriate name of the point from which you gain your first view of the beautiful harbour of the West, should you approach it by land. It is high up on this part-wooded shoulder of Pirongia Mountain which divides the Waipa and the Waikato from the tidal waters of Kawhia. By the motor road to it from Te Awamutu you pass the old military township of Pirongia—it was called Alexandra when it was founded in 1864—and the farm which was once the Maori thatched town of Whatiwhatihoe (“The Place of Broken Paddles”), where once King Tawhiao and his chiefs ruled in primitive dignity. Then up into the hills until at Tirohanga-Kawhia there is the first glimpse of the western harbour. It is luxurious motoring now. For myself I prefer my memories of old-time, the ride across country to Oparau, the head of navigation on Kawhia, from the King Country township of Otorohanga.