The first road was built in 1863 from Raglan via Okete (Okete Rd remained the main road until 1906) to the Waitetuna River. The county history said, "For a dozen years or more before the county was formed (1875), 10 miles of roughly formed dirt road, wide enough to carry horse-drawn drays, linked Raglan township with the Waitetuna River. From there the packhorse route (originally known as the Tikihouhou Track) made by the Army during the Waikato War, wound a tortuous way across the ranges, but it was too narrow, and too steep in parts, to carry vehicles." It became a through road to Hamilton in 1879. It was metalled between 1914 and 1921 and sealing started in 1937, but wasn't completed until 1961.