Distance: 11.2 km (4.0 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Easy terrain
Altitude: 167m to 503m. Gain: 815m. Loss: 1024m . Gradient: 9 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)

Tramping track (4/9)
Cut, marked tramping track: natural, rough ground surface

Primary, unmapped (2/5)
Route not on maps, but is principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Easy (difficulty: 1/5)
Grass / prepared surface

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

Occasional rivers (difficulty: 3/6)
Occasional rivers - impassible after heavy rain

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

The start of the Burtton Track is signposted with the usual DOC signs, and a stile is present over the fence. You can’t miss it, even if it isn’t shown on the map. The track is broad, well marked and well cut through now-tall regenerating bush. Heading south along the ridgeline to pt505, it then swings west towards the Tokomaru. As we drop, the regenerating bush is replaced by tall, mature podocarp. Real trees – the first in a long time.

The track drops to the side-creek south of the main spur, hitting it 200m up from the forks. There are good campspots here, if you didn’t fancy the side-trip to Punga Hut. Crossing the creek we climb and sidle a bit and drop to the main Tokomaru river.

After a brief section in the riverbed – a few crossings required, a good poled, marked track starts up on the western bank. This follows the river, sometimes on the flats, sometimes sidling, until it hits the 4WD track shown on maps. We follow this upriver through rough sheep-pasture for another kilometer or so, to where a tidy (private) bach sits on the western valleyside. Just before this the tramping track crosses the river (no signpost, look for markers opposite). Once on the far bank, the track is vaguely poled as it heads up grassy river flats, but becomes cut and clear once it hits the bush again.

This is now the true Burtton Track, benched into the hillside and sidling the valley all the way to the forestry at Tokomaru Rd. Half way, the old site of Burtton’s Whare is marked and has information panels. Interesting history and clearly he was a tough old bugger, but on the ground there’s not much to see. The valleyside alternates between sections of low regenerating bush – presumably the areas that were farmed, and bands of beautiful mature bush – tall totora reaching for the sky, an understory of fern trees below. Later, we sidle on an ATV track below forestry, before finally climbing to meet the Tokomarru Road. The signpost at the junction has been destroyed – just the post remains – beware if you are heading in the reverse direction.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

The turnoff from Tokomaru Rd is no longer signposted (2014), though the wooden post itself remains - 100m beyond where the forestry track starts to climb off the valley floor. The track (a quad track at this stage) dropps left off the road and sidles down the valley, passing in and out of several sidecreeks. After a long haul through low scrub and pines, sections of podocarp forest appear, alternating with clearings and scrub - presumably once-farmed areas. The ATV track is reduced to a once-platformed tramping track, but it is well marked and easy going.

Half way down the valley the track enters a flat and clearing which is all that remains of Burttons Whare. A signpost marks the approximate location. A kilometer or so beyond, the track ends on grassy flats. After a few hundred unmarked meters, triangles on the opposite bank mark the spot you must cross. The river is low - ankle deep in normal flows, and controlled by dams upriver - but could become impassable after rain.

On crossing the river you are greated by a 4WD track, which ends at a private bach (just back upriver). Following the track downstream you pass through a few flats and sidles before the track starts to climb out of the valley. A marker 20m above the valley floor marks the turnoff point where a DOC tramping track drops back to the valley floor.

The next kilometer or so is untracked - on the river banks with at least 1 crossing required. Crossings are marked with triangles.

Finally, 200m before the confluence, a tramping track starts again on the eastern bank, sidling up the valleyside and then dropping to the major sidecreek 100m upriver. Good campspots exist at the sidecreek crossing.

Crossing the creek, the track, now in lovely mature bush, climbs steadily up the opposite until it enters scrub again around pt505. Swinging north a well cut track leads you to a stile on the boundary of PNCC-owned pine forests.