Found out today that Burrtons Track was named after a Mr Burrton who used to live on his own somewhere on the track (in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but trees and river). He lived on one side of the river and farmed on the other so had built a suspension bridge to help him across the water. When the bridge eventually broke while he was crossing it, he landed on the rocks below and broke his leg. He spent 12 hours walking along the track he had made in order to find help. He did end up in hospital but later died of his injuries. We walked across the same streams and along the river bank in three hours as opposed to Burrtons 12 - not sure we could have complained about the track at all having been told about its history!
After three river crossings, we eventually passed back out of the forest and onto a gravel road that seemed to last forever but it was fairly flat at least!
We had lunch at a reservoir and agreed to take an alternate route that we'd been told about in the Bivouac Outdoor store in Palmerston North. Instead of turning off onto the Te Araroa Track, we continued on the gravel road until we hit a third reservoir- since we were off of he official trail, we had no real guide of how far we were walking and were going by 'as the crow flies' km marks from our GPS which was very frustrating since we spent so much time weaving and turning and going up and down.
When we finally reached the turn off to our alternate track, I was extremely relieved since I'd started to get grumpy on the roads again.
We were apprehensive about the track to start with since we had nothing to go by besides the random man in Bivouac's word but an hour in, we were so glad we took it!
The forest itself was amazing anyway- trees covered in moss, roots weaving all over the path, and the river running beside the track the whole way. But the actual route was even better with climbs up and over huge fallen trees and scrambles along washed out pathway. We crossed three wire bridges which, given the story about Mr Burrton we'd heard earlier on in the day, was both interesting and extremely scary!! They do not look like they should hold your weight and when they have a big sign on them saying 'one person only', you start to question how heavy you might be with your bag on your back.
We were hoping to make it to the Mangahoe Flat Hut for the evening but having taken 3 hours and 15 minutes to complete just 8.5km, we decided we'd better take our pick of the first clear site we could pitch a tent on.
Luke was starving hungry and in his 'I need to be there NOW' mood so we were starting to panic about where we might camp since the ground was either completely saturated in muddy water or covered in huge mossy trees.
I gave up my spare muesli bar to keep him going for a little while when from up ahead the track we heard Renee call 'there's a picnic bench!' I thought for a minute how cruel it was to joke about such a thing when I actually saw the bench! And a spot for two tents by the river with a fire pit already made up!
Thank god we found somewhere to camp - I got tea on straight away while Luke put the tent up. We'd walked 28km on some of the hardest track we'd tackled yet - I think it was worthy of an early night so we left our shoes over the fire to dry and went to bed.
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