SH54 (New Zealand)

The SH54 starts on SH1 at Vingar Hill and heads south east, following the Rangitikei River downstream. There is a curious pair of near hairpin bends, the second almost flat, which drop the road downhill to cross a tributary, but otherwise the road stays on the hillside above the river. At Rewa, it turns away from the river and another near hairpin starts a climb up to a summit at around 420m at Stormy Point. These are the only hills on the route, which now starts a long steady descent towards sea level (although it never reaches the coast).

After a short twisty section at Waituna West, the road straightens out and runs through a level patchwork of fields, with the first straight extending to 5km. After a few shorter straights, the road crosses the Kiwitea Stream and passes through Cheltenham, after which a straight of over 8km leads south west to Feilding. This town is laid out on a grid-iron pattern, but strangely has diagonal roads in each corner, connecting the main cross roads. Local through traffic will probably cut the corner on East Street, but SH54 heads right into the town centre on Kimbolton Road, where it turns left onto Aorangi Street, which follows the railway out of town again, and across the Oroua River.

Another TOTSO turns SH54 south again in Aorangi, and after another long straight it curves to the left, following the grid of fields south east, roughly parallel with SH3. A final right turn TOTSO at a crossroads leads SH54 to its end on SH3 at Newbury, a short distance west of Palmerston North.