Sunday 28 August 2022

Leader: Tony Quayle & Paula Richardson

Walking the length of Burtton’s Track, which links Scott’s Road in the north with the Mangahao Road behind Shannon, is a bit of a logistical challenge with a choice of a lengthy car shuffle or a car swap. We chose the latter and divided our large group into northbound and southbound teams with a key swap when we met somewhere in the middle.

Both teams departed Kapiti at 8am and headed off for their respective road ends.

The northbound walk begins with a long and gradual mostly-downhill trek alongside the Tokomaru River; a mix of pine forest, recently-burnt regeneration, a couple of large grassy flats, and some attractive native bush. The new Tokomaru Shelter was passed early on, and a couple of recent slips were negotiated with easy scrambles.

We had hoped to meet the southbound team on the grassy flats near a private hut downstream from the Burrton’s Whare site, and selected our lunchspot accordingly on the last grassy clearing. However, as Murphy would have it, they’d stopped near the Number 2 stream a little further on, and we crossed paths and exchanged keys just a little further downstream than I’d expected.

It’d been quite chilly in the valley, so we were looking forward (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) to the climb out of the valley. Fortunately, it’s a well graded track, not at all slippery, and didn’t take long. Sunshine greeted us at the picnic table where the track emerges, overlooking the Kahuterawa Stream headwater basin. Energetic Palmerston North tramper Emma Gregg, accompanied by her 2 equally energetic dogs, stopped for a chat while were relaxing there.

The remainder of the walk was a bit of a trudge along the Gordon Kear Forest roads. A “measured auto-plod” as Kate described it. The attractive Te Whare o Moturimu shelter was a highlight along the way.

Neville, who’d walked as far as the picnic table with the southbound team, and spent some time exploring on his own, met us just before we reached the Scott’s Road carpark.

Paula reports “The southbound walkers started at Scotts Rd with a forest road walk initially. We were all delighted with the Te Whare o Moturimu shelter for the Te Araroa walkers (or anyone walking through like ourselves). It was nice to reach the Tararua Forest Park boundary and enter the bush and wander along a well marked track. The descent was from 500m to 200m to the Tokomaru River, it was a pleasant place to stop for lunch. We met the northbound walkers a little after lunch and shortly before reaching Burtton's Whare site. It was interesting to ponder on the fact that Jim Burtton had lived there by himself for over 20 years, farming and building the track. The rest of the walk was very enjoyable with a short stop at the Tokomaru shelter. The Burtton's Track brochure says to "add an extra 1.5 hours if going south to north to allow for the climb.”

Our 2 teams reunited in Shannon before the drive home.

Those on the trip were:

Chantal Heller, Darrel Sutherland, Elisabeth Hynes, John Peterson, Julie James, Kate Livingston, Neville Grubner, Nisa Promchot, Paula Richardson, Rob Dey, Robert Adams, Sue Pate, Sue Douglas, Sue Sparkes, Tony Quayle, Viv Roberts