This road takes us back into the steep, geologically young landscape we had seen on the Forgotten World Highway. Soft papa, pushed up from the sea about one million years ago, is being rapidly eroded by water. Here is the Motuaruhe Stream, which runs through these high white walls of the clay/rock.
This tributary is considerably wider than many, some of which are thin enfilades in the hills, with precipitous walls covered in obstinate bush that hangs down over the bare rock.