Progress Water Race Track
Reefton · West Coast
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. DOC’s own wording: “You are not allowed to take a pet into conservation land without DOC permission. This includes national parks, wildlife areas and reserves. (DOC, dog access page, read 5 September 2026. The Progress Water Race Track page itself says nothing about dogs, and silence is not permission. The track runs entirely inside Victoria Forest Park, conservation land under the Conservation Act, and DOC's own pages for the Klondyke tracks in the same park say "Dogs with a DOC permit only", arranged with the Māwhera / Greymouth office.)”. 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 Progress Water Race Track
Progress Water Race Track is a moderate-length walk of 2.2 km, near Reefton in West Coast.
A short, genuinely lovely walk on an old gold-era water race above the Inangahua River, 11 km east of Reefton on the Lewis Pass highway. Joel, who sent it in with Bryn, gives the turn better than DOC does: west off SH7 just south of Blacks Point, then 500 m of gravel road to a small car park at the swingbridge. You cross the Inangahua on the suspension bridge, climb a set of stairs, and from there the track settles onto the disused Progress Water Race and traverses south with the river below you. DOC calls it 5 km return and about 2 hours, an easy to intermediate walking track. The line on this page is DOC's own. OpenStreetMap only has the first 600 m or so past the bridge, which is why this walk sat unpublished for a week, so the route here is drawn from DOC's track data instead: 2.2 km each way, ending where Deep Creek meets the Inangahua. From that end you can turn around and walk back the way you came, or, as DOC puts it, carefully cross the Inangahua at the marked ford and follow the highway back to the bridge. With a dog on the lead the ford is a judgement call and the river comes up fast on this coast, so the same track back is the sensible default. DOC also notes that the old route on to the Golden Lead Battery along Deep Creek is no longer maintained and its swing bridge has been removed, so do not plan on that link. Dogs need a DOC permit here, and that is worth sorting before you make the drive. The whole track is inside Victoria Forest Park, which is conservation land, and DOC's rule for conservation land is that you cannot take a pet in without its permission. The track page itself does not mention dogs one way or the other, but DOC's pages for the Klondyke tracks in this same park spell it out as dogs with a DOC permit only, arranged with the Māwhera / Greymouth office. Ring or email them ahead of time; permits can take a few days.
Expect easy going, with around 62 m of climb, and takes about 32 min to walk.
A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. Arrange it with the managing DOC office ahead of your trip. This walk is on the map because Joel & Bryn suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.