Konini Pack Track
Reefton · West Coast
We drew and checked this walk ourselves against the authority quoted above before publishing it. The route line comes from official track data. The rule-setter’s own wording: “Dogs with a DOC permit only. (Department of Conservation, Reefton hunting block page, read 7 September 2026. The Dogs section reads: “Dogs are prohibited except where authorisation has been granted by DOC. People wishing to take a dog into this area must seek authorisation from the DOC office. Keep dogs under control when crossing farmland.” The same page carries DOC’s standard pill, “Dogs with a DOC permit only.”) DOC publishes no page of its own for the Konini Pack Track and its Reefton Walks brochure does not list it, so there is no track specific rule to read. We checked the ground instead of guessing. DOC’s Public Conservation Land layer, probed along the whole line on 7 September 2026, returns Recreation Reserve - Reefton and Local Purpose Reserve - Quarry - Reefton at the town end and Victoria Forest Park, a conservation area, for the rest of the way to Blacks Point. Every one of those is conservation land, where DOC’s standing rule is that “You are not allowed to take a pet into conservation land without DOC permission. This includes national parks, wildlife areas and reserves.” The permit area is Greymouth - Mawheranui, so the Māwhera / Greymouth office is the one to ask, and it is the same permit that covers the other Victoria Forest Park walks on this site. This is not the hunting dog permit: DOC holds no track record for this line at all, and the wording above is a general authorisation for anyone bringing a dog, so ask the office and they will tell you what they want”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. Apply to the managing DOC office ahead of time; do not turn up with the dog first.
Opens your email app, addressed to [email protected]. You can also call DOC on 0800 275 362.
About Konini Pack Track
Konini Pack Track is a moderate-length walk of 3.6 km, near Reefton in West Coast.
An old goldfields pack track that runs the 3.6 km between Reefton and Blacks Point, climbing off the edge of town and over the ridge rather than following the highway round. It is a steeper walk than the distance suggests, a little over 400 m of climbing packed into that 3.6 km, so give it more time than the number looks like it needs. It was sent in by a member who walks it as the Reefton to Blacks Point ridge, and it is the sort of track that exists because miners needed to get packhorses somewhere in the 1870s, not because anyone set out to build a walk. The line we have drawn starts at the Reefton end, on the reserve land behind the town, and climbs steadily onto the ridge before dropping east towards Blacks Point. It is a formed ground surface for nearly all of it, with one middle section on an old vehicle track, and it joins up with the Murray Creek track system at the Blacks Point end, which is where DOC’s Reefton Walks brochure picks the network up. You can walk it one way and come back on the highway, or turn it round and make it about 7.2 km. Riders use it as well, so expect to meet a bike coming the other way and to step off for it in the tighter corners. A dog needs a DOC permit here, and we want to be straight about why, because nothing on the ground will tell you. DOC has no page for this track and does not name it in its Reefton brochure, so we checked the land instead: the town end is reserve and the rest is Victoria Forest Park, all of it conservation land, and DOC does not allow a pet onto conservation land without its permission. The office to ask is Māwhera / Greymouth. It is the same permit the other Victoria Forest Park walks here need, so if you have sorted one for the Murray Creek side you are already covered. Two practical things. Our line comes from OpenStreetMap rather than a DOC survey, and one stretch near the Reefton end is mapped sparsely, so treat the shape as a good guide rather than a centimetre accurate route. And this is West Coast bush: the ground holds water, the surface is ground rather than gravel, and it will be greasy for a day or two after rain.
It sits at the hard end and gains roughly 404 m, and takes about 1 hr 23 to walk.
A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. Arrange it with the managing DOC office ahead of your trip.