Taumarunui

Taumarunui accommodation covers a King Country railway town at the northern end of the Forgotten World Highway. Cottages and holiday homes here favour slow trips: the back road to Stratford past Whangamōmona, rail carts through the tunnels of a closed line, and the Timber Trail finishing north of town.

Tongariro National Park is about an hour by road, close enough for a day on the mountain and dinner back here.