After a year the Straker steam bus was abandoned, and a "glorious failure" were words used to describe this venture.
It would be Aucklander Arthur Cleave and his teenage son who travelled from Taupo to Napier in 1903 in a 5 horsepower (hp) American Locomobile petrol, steam-powered vehicle.
The next year, the wife of Hawke's Bay Motor co-director, Mrs H F Butcher, drove a 5hp Oldsmobile with a top speed of 25 miles per hour (40km/h) from Napier to Rotorua in two days. This trip could only be undertaken in summer, but any rainfall would have made the trip impossible with the hills too slippery to ascend.
Finally in 1913, the Hawke's Bay Motor Co had a vehicle capable of making the Napier-Taupo Rd journey with an open tourer Cadillac.
During summer time the service operated three times a week, but in winter, the unsealed road's use was subject to rain and snow conditions. For the first time, however, for £5 (2021: $868) passengers could travel to Taupo to Napier (or vice-versa) in a day, by leaving at 8am and arriving at 5pm.
The road was tough on the cars, with deep ruts needing tires, to be replaced around every 8000km.
Stagecoach travel continued with the advent of the Cadillacs until the early 1920s.
With the end of stagecoach travel and motor vehicles becoming popular, reliable and faster, attention turned to improving the Napier-Taupo Rd so (ironic in today's world) vehicles could travel faster.
One such location was Runanga, and the Ministry of Works, engineer Mr J Andrews in 1926 created a route for a deviation to avoid the winding road and steep gradients.
His two stage plan started at an area called the Nunneries bridge ‒ about 3km south of where the Runanga deviation would begin. The Runanga deviation itself was around 9km in length before it rejoined the existing Napier-Taupo Rd.
However, the Great Depression would have other plans, and instead of creating the Runanga deviation first, work started from the Nunneries bridge area in the early 1930s but was halted when World War II broke out.
Work would not resume in this area until the 1950s, when the previous work done in the 1930s was reconstructed.
During the 1950s and 60s work, however, had been completed on the Turangakumu and Titiokura deviations. The Mohaka bridge was built in 1962 – another major project which replaced the wooden-trussed 1910 bridge.
A part of the Runanga deviation of nearly a kilometre was completed in 1957, but until enough funds could be set aside, work on completing it did not start until 1966.
The $2.6 million (2021: $107.5 million) project was not completed until 1972, when it opened in May.
The cost included four bridges, including one over the Waipunga River.
Speeds of 15 miles per hour (mph) (24km/h) were only possible over the old section with the new deviation's road allowing average speeds up to 50mph (80km/h).
In 1935 an average of 50 vehicles travelled the Napier-Taupo Rd, and when the deviation opened, there was an average daily use of 1000 vehicles.
Around 3km was cut off the length of the journey thanks to the deviation, and all up it was expected to save the average private car 15 minutes off the travel time. Those in heavy vehicles coming from Taupo to Napier could expect to save up to half an hour.
Most of the curves could be negotiated at a speed in excess of 35mph (56km/h), but one was only 25mph (40km/h).
What received perhaps the most excitement from the public was that upon completion of the Runanga deviation the Napier-Taupo Rd was for the first time sealed the whole way.
At the opening of the Runanga deviation, and especially to celebrate the tarsealing, horse-drawn vehicles led a procession of vintage cars along the route.
The next planned deviation announced for the Napier-Taupo Rd was in the Esk Valley.
Today there are around 3257 vehicles on average (lockdowns withstanding) that use the Napier-Taupo Rd.
Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory
