Introduction
Come out for a picnic in the beautiful Wooded Gully camping and picnic area, splash in the stream and explore the recently upgraded Kererū Loop Track.- This short walk follows the Wooded Gully Stream, with a couple of bridge crossings and a 10 minute zigzag up a hill. It’s all downhill after that.
- The track passes through native beech forest surrounded by commercial exotic forest – see if you can spot the different between the two.
- Tree fuchsia/kōtukutuku berries (kōnini), honey dew from the beech trees and the cherries growing on the introduced wild cherry trees around the picnic area provide food for the native kererū and other birds. How many can you see?
Getting ready
Download the Mt Thomas Forest adventure map (PDF, 1,766K) and check out what you can do.
Getting there
This track starts by the Wooded Gully camping and picnic area at Mt Thomas Forest. Turn off Birch Hill Road onto Hayland Road and follow the wide straight shingle road 4 km to the end.
Birch Hill Road is sealed and can be accessed either from Oxford via Ashley Gorge Road, or Loburn from Rangiora.
Know before you go
The track is easy and well-graded, and suitable for young and old.
Usually the loop track takes 45 minutes to an hour, but the weather event at the end of May 2021 caused a major slip at the end of the loop and the track along the river was washed out.
This section is now closed until repaired. After reaching the summit, you can continue for another 10 minutes downhill to the second bridge. But you will need to return to the campsite and picnic area the same way.
Allow 1 hour 15 minutes to the second bridge and back, or 50 minutes to the summit and back.
Dogs are welcome – please keep them on a lead and clean up after them.
Go and explore
Look out for the Guardian Post when you get there. On it you'll find a special code word – write it down.
