The Bridge to Nowhere

Whanganui National Park

The idea was a good one, to build a new bridge to provide better access for the farmers in a remote region in the upper Whanganui River region during the 1930s.

The problem was that by the time the concrete bridge was finished the farmers, who were WW1 ex-servicemen given impossibly untamed land to clear into farms, had given up, packed up and left the area.

Consequently, the construction of a road connecting Mangapurua Valley to the Whanganui River was abandoned and the finished bridge left to nature.

A monument to those tough pioneers and the unofficial flagship of Whanganui National Park, the bridge has now become an iconic symbol for area.

Popular with trampers accessing the southern point of the Mangapurua Valley, The Bridge to Nowhere has had a film named after it and is now protected under an Historic Places Trust Category I listing.

You can access The Bridge to Nowhere by way of a gentle 40-minute walk from the Mangapurua Landing on the Whanganui River or, more vigorously, by a two-day tramp from Whakahoro Hut in the lower Retaruke Valley, via the Kaiwhakauka and Mangapurua Valleys.

Don’t forget your compass.