Distance: 5.5 km (2.8 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 379m to 921m. Gain: 104m. Loss: 577m . Gradient: 7 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)

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

Primary, mapped (1/5)
Formal route, on maps, principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Easy-moderate (difficulty: 2/5)
Tussock / river-gravel / open bush / cut track

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

From the hut the track wanders east the south across the broad plateau. Sparse manuka remains, contorta pines filling the gaps. It’s an alien landscape. The escarpment shown on the mapo is invisible on the ground, walking through a canyon of low pinetrees.

Suddenly, the easy flat going ends, and the track hist the end of the plateau. It drops steeply in a series of zigzags to the Donald River below - through good manuka now, pines left behind on the plateau. The river at the base is small, but wet feet seem mandatory, and it could flood after heavy rain. Good campspots exist on the far, eastern bank.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

The river is small, but wet feet seem guaranteed, and could flood after very heavy rain. The climb up the far side to the Mackintosh plateau is 450m and steep, despite benched zigzags which manage to more than double the distance without seeming to reduce the gradient. On a summer's day, sweat is expended, climbing through a banking landscape of manuka scrub..

The manuka has diminished in size by the time you reach the plateau – sparse scrub remaining, contorta pines filling the gaps. It’s an alien landscape. The map shows the track following the escarpment towards Mackintosh hut, but on the ground it feels more like the middle of a large plateau. The map shows a steady descent to the hut, but on the ground this in barely perceptible and soon the hut appears sitting in a cleared area across a small creek.