Distance: 1.4 km (1.0 DOC hours) - Benched track - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 422m to 548m. Gain: 162m. Loss: 36m . Gradient: 8 deg (Moderate)
Skills:

Benched track (3/9)
Benched, maintained, marked tramping track or pack-track

Primary, mapped (1/5)
Formal route, on maps, principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Easy-moderate (difficulty: 2/5)
Tussock / river-gravel / open bush / cut track

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

None (difficulty: 1/6)
No unbridged river crossings

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

A small 'Track' sign (pointing downriver) on the eastern bank of the Mangamate is all that marks the start of the Moerangi link track. The unmarked, unsignposted track is thankfully, clearly visible on the ground, climbing NE from the signpost on what, it becomes clear, is an old roadbed. The roadway is too eroded to drive in any vehicle, but a well trodden track (and stoat trap-line) has kept the old road open as a waling route.

Completely ignoring the straight line shown on the map, the roadbed zigzags and meanders its way up the spur ENE of the forks, finally setting in to sidle the northern face of the ridge. The road drops to cross 2 small streams, and then swings round another spur to approach the track junction from the NW (not SW as shown on the map).

As a result, when you hit the junction, the track to Moerangi is straight ahead, and the track to the roadend cuts back to your left (north).

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

Following the old roadbed NW from the track junction (not SW as shown on maps), we round a spur, and then swing SW, dropping to cross 2 small creeks before climbing to another spur beyond. The old roadbed is eroded and blocked by large windfall, but a good walking route through it all has been cut, presumably by stoat-trappers who have a trap-line along it. The track sidles the northern face of the spur, and then zig-zags its way down to hit the Mangamate stream at the confluence shown on the map.