Route
State Highway 49 runs northwest to southeast, and roughly follows the North Island Main Trunk railway. This is the route SH 49 takes in 2008.
State Highway 49 leaves SH 4 at Tohunga Junction, some eight kilometres north of Raetihi, and heads southeast across rolling hills to the tourist town of Ohakune. Following Ohakune's main street, the road continues southeast out of the township, passing Ohakune's famous giant carrot.
State Highway 49 continues southeast across rolling hills, running broadly in the same direction as the North Island Main Trunk. It passes the rural villages of Rangataua and Karioi, before meeting the railway line at the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai. The bridge here has flashing lighs and gates to block off the road in case of a lahar from Mount Ruapehu's crater lake. To the side of the bridge is the Tangiwai memorial, erected to remember the 151 people who died when a Wellington to Auckland express train plunged into the river following a lahar on 24 December 1953.
After crossing the Whangaehu River, and the railway line, SH 49 turns east for several kilometres, before turning south into Waiouru. At Waiouru, SH 49 ends at the intersection with State Highway 1.
A former spur, SH 49A, ran between Ohakune and SH 4 at Raetihi. Its highway status was revoked in 1991–92.
Read more about this topic: New Zealand State Highway 49
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