From there it follows the northeastern side of the Leith Valley, then crosses the headwaters of the Leith before traversing the Leith Saddle and taking a roller-coaster-like course to the valley of the Waitati River, then to Waitati.
Upper Junction Road, the winding old road to Port Chalmers from the Dunedin suburb of North East Valley, rises to join with the old Mount Cargill road, which was itself the former main road north out of Dunedin, linking the city's main urban area at Normanby with Waitati.