SH45 (New Zealand)

The SH45 follows the coast around the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island, meeting SH3 at both ends. It is also commonly known at The Surf Highway, due to the many surfing beaches accessed from the route - a route which is rarely on the coast itself. It also curves round three sides of the Egmont National Park, which encompasses the volcanic cone of Mount Taranaki.

The route starts on SH3 in the centre of New Plymouth, where it also meets SH44, and heads south west as a dual carriageway, using the parallel Courtneay Street and Leach Street. The names change to Powderham and Vivian Streets, towards the end of which SH45 kinks right, the two carriageways rejoining, and follows Devon Street West. This in turn becomes South Road as it winds out of town. The road stays close to the coast at first to reach Oakura, but then turns further inland, skimming the edge of the national park to reach Okato.

Apart from the ever present bulk of Mount Taranaki, the road is crossing a flat landscape of fields dotted with houses, and cut through at regular intervals by the main streams and rivers flowing down from Taranaki's slopes. The side roads too seem to radiate out from the mountains summit, and between them they dictate most of the field boundaries too. A few kilometres west of Okato, the road turns south, remaining at some distance from the coast, but the landscape is no longer so very flat, with lumps and bumps dotted across the fields. In places the straight road cuts through these hillocks, instead of trying to go round them - perhaps the original road climbed over them, but modern traffic and machinery have meant that a short cutting is much easier and safer.

A handful of villages are strung along the roadside as it slowly converges on the coast at Opunake. The main road runs through the bustling town centre, without a bypass, while the beaches and holiday park lie just a couple of streets to the south. As it leaves the town behind, SH45 winds over the Waiaua River as it heads south east now, rarely more than 2 or 3 fields from the coast. It turns away a little at Otakeho, and then passes through the grid-iron town of Manaia with a roundabout at its centre.

The influence of Mount Taranaki on the landscape is waning now, it is still a dominant presence on the horizon to the north, but side roads and boundaries tend to run north south as the frequency of run-off streams diminishes. It is, however, nearly the end of the route, with just a few kilometres left to reach Hawera, with SH45 ending on SH3 at the western end of the town. The junction is a TOTSO T junction, giving priority to the SH45 - SH3 east route, with the 'short cut' from New Plymouth having to give way.