Stratford has a clock tower that plays Shakespeare, and the whole town has leant into the joke. Its streets carry names such as Juliet, Romeo and Portia, and the glockenspiel on the tower acts out scenes from Romeo and Juliet several times a day. It is a farming town of a few thousand people on the eastern flank of Mount Taranaki, in the rolling dairy country of the North Island's west, and it is an easy place to like.
The mountain is the star. Taranaki, also called Mount Egmont, is a nearly perfect volcanic cone rising to about 2,500 metres from a plain with nothing else around, and it dominates the skyline for miles. In Māori tradition, the mountain once stood with the other volcanoes in the middle of the island, but lost a fight over a woman and fled west to the coast. When the cloud lifts, which is not as often as you would like, the snow-capped summit is a magnificent sight. A road climbs to the Dawson Falls and the lodge on the mountain's south-eastern side.
For riders, Stratford is the start of the Forgotten World Highway, State Highway 43, which runs about 150 kilometres to Taumarunui through very remote hill country. The road is a long, steady sequence of bends over a dozen saddles, through gorges and bush, with little traffic. About a dozen kilometres of it is unsealed, through the Tangarakau Gorge, and loose gravel needs care. It passes the old Moki Tunnel, a hand-cut hole in the hillside, and Whangamomona, a hamlet that declared itself a republic in 1989 and holds a celebratory day every other year. The pub there is a popular stop.
Fuel is the thing to plan. Stratford has stations and shops, but the next dependable fuel is a long way off at Taumarunui, so fill up before leaving and keep a margin. Hawera, about twenty-eight kilometres to the south, is the larger town in the area. Bring food, water and layers, since the weather can change quickly in the hills, with mist and rain common on the western side.
Pick a fine day for the highway. It rewards patience with some of the quietest and most scenic riding in the country.