A Story of the Tauranga-Rotorua Road

This story was told to me about 30 years ago by a television film cameraman who was doing a programme at my residence at that time, well up Pyes Pa Road, which prompted the memory.  Apparently years earlier they were filming a real old-timer. He had been a carriage driver back in the old horse and carriage days.  In those days the run from Tauranga to Rotorua was through Pyes Pa Road and part way through the gorge, at Ngawaro, was the Halfway House, with overnight accommodation.  This was as far as the driver went, and here the horses were rested before returning to Tauranga.  Similarly, the Rotorua carriage driver did a trip from Rotorua to the Halfway House and back to his starting point. I remember seeing the remains of that house, probably in the 1960s.  The road in those days was quite treacherous and was frequently closed in the winter months.  Closures were always announced on the radio.
 
But back to the story.  From time to time the carriage driver was known to drop his whip when rounding a bend, so he had to pull the carriage up, dismount and run back to retrieve it. It would have been indelicate to give the real reason for the stop.  So with the whip duly collected, off they would go again and the driver was spared any embarrassment and the passengers were none the wiser.  Until one day, after rounding a corner, a lady tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Driver, I’ve dropped my whip.”  He understood completely.  The horses were pulled up, the lady alighted and “retrieved her whip”, and the journey continued to the Halfway House.