This track provides good access to the Ruahine main range. From the road end there is a 1.5 hour walk up the river to the Colenso Spur which commences at a main stream confluence.

A stone memorial cairn is located here for the missionary William Colenso, who frequently used this old Maori route over the Ruahine Range. While he explored new ways across the range, he always used the route over Te-Atua-o-Mahuru (spirit of spring) for one leg of each journey.

"Hour after hour passed in arduous toil before we gained the top; the primeval forest being so filled with decaying trees and prostrate limbs and tangled shrubs and herbage, that we would scarcely get through it."

On reaching the summit he was always overwhelmed by the sweeping sub-alpine filled gardens.

The track climbs steeply from the river and moves along a steep rock face before entering beech forest and emerging onto the open tops. There are no cairns or poles for guidance to the tops. Time given is from road end.