I’d been wanting to complete the Manawatu Gorge Track Walk for a long time now as it’s pretty close to home (within an hour) and it has always felt as though it would be a pretty spectacular track. When I was younger I often remembered driving through the manawatu gorge on the way to or from seeing our cousins in Dannevirke and it always felt really long.
The actual Manawatu gorge track is 10km long and is NOT a loop track, unless you want to make it a 20km round trip. The best advice is to take two cars and leave one at the Woodville end of the track and begin at the Ashurst end. There were a few people going the opposite direction which you can do of course however it would be a lot steeper going in from this direction so I’d definitely begin from Ashurst unless you LOVE walking up steep hills 😉
The Manawatu gorge track walk is the perfect walk to do on a nice sunny day even if it’s really hot like it was when we completed the walk as most of the track is hidden in native NZ bush which helps to keep the sun off.
The track is graded easy on the DOC website, however after completing the track we would likely grade it as a medium. The track is very well formed (which is where I presume the ‘easy’ grading comes from), however is quite steep in places. I think everyone who is pretty able bodied would be able to complete the Manawatu gorge track walk however it would just be a matter of how long it would take them to complete it as some people would need more rest breaks than others.
We arranged for a group of our Bootcampers to go over for the day to complete the walk which was really awesome to see them all get out and do it! Everywhere we had read said that it would take 3-5 hours to complete, our fastest did it in around 2hours 40 minutes and the slowest in around 3hours 20 minutes which is really good going considering the steepness in places!
We were all sticking at a pretty quick pace and most people did the little side tracks which took anywhere from 5-15 minutes return (there were a couple of longer ones if you’re interested in extending your walk out). I would highly recommend making sure you take the side tracks to the slip lookout and the windmills as well as ensuring you stop by the seat near the end and peer out to the view down to the river as all three of those lookout points were definitely my highlights in the walk.
Keep in mind that the first 2km are pretty much all up hill and take breaks as you need them to catch your breath and have a drink of water. Once you get to the Tiki you get a bit of respite from the hills and then some very steep downhill so take these nice and easy. There are a few more ups and downs including another steep climb towards the end combined with a few flat sections just to help bring you heart rate down a little.
Overall the Manawatu Gorge track walk was an amazing walk only around an hour from home and it was a really good workout at the same time. I’d highly recommend this track to anyone who was interested in taking a walk in our beautiful NZ bush and I really wish more people would get out and explore some of these tracks as we are very lucky to have them and live in such a beautiful country!
If you’re interested in some other NZ walks don’t forget to check out the following:
Manawatu Gorge TRAIN track walk
That’s awesome! I remember when you did the did the rail walk through the gorge how you said you wanted to do the bush track.
We live 8km from the Ballance end so it’s literally on our doorstep which is awesome, and have done the 10km twice in the last fortnight. I think one of the great things is like you said – it can be stinking hot outside, but under the canopy of the trees it’s nowhere near as bad, so is enjoyable even on a hot summer day. Great workout.
Thanks so much for your comment Sus! You live in such a beautiful area, I would totally be doing this walk all the time as well if it was right on my doorstep like that 🙂