Mt Messenger is an especially scenic section of State Highway 3 approximately 50km northeast of New Plymouth.

The route is especially bendy with many corners with 35km/hr advisory speeds, it has as a result be the site of many proposed bypass routes.

Such a bypass is now under construction with a budget of $NZ280m but if recent projects are anything to go by I expect that to be significantly blown out by theme the bypass is completed.

The bypass is being constructed on the basis of improved safety and time savings .

The existing route (that is the part being bypassed) takes around 7 minutes to traverse by car, longer with a significant fuel penalty for heavy trucks of course .

As far as crashes go I note some extreme creative use of statistics in the inclusion of data for 30 km of road which is not even part of the bypass route !! Thats on the contractors web site anyway https://www.wsp.com/ennz/projects/mt...

The bypass has been subject to ongoing controversy around the disturbance to native vegetation and wildlife including promised ongoing pest control. see : (https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/5...)

From a personal perspective I've driven this route hundreds of times in the last 50 years generally with less "enthusiastic pace " as I've gotten older but one thing for sure it will never be as beautiful as it is now with the massive cuts in the bypass route.

Unlike my other driving video's this one shows the route in its entirety as later I'd like to make a comparative video.

My Gear:
DJI Action 4 (in car apologies for the windscreen reflections) .