For the second time we successfully booked the entire 32 bunk Powell Hut. The plan was to complete the Jumbo Holdsworth loop, however the weather wasn’t playing ball. We wound up with 3 groups, 3 hardly souls tackling the circuit, 18 East Holdsworth, and 5 Gentle Annie. The remainder had dropped out earlier in the week.

Huge thanks to Cliff, Bang and Vignesh for the blog posts on Gentle Annie, the circuit and East Holdsworth.

See links for more info:
https://www.meetup.com/WellingtonTrampingGroup/events/272590936/
https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/wellington-kapiti/places/tararua-forest-park/things-to-do/tracks/mt-holdsworth-jumbo-circuit/

Gentle Annie my Arse, by Cliff

So Marty says I’ve booked you a bed in the hut, don’t worry we are doing the easy route and can take our time, and girlfriend coming with us. Thought I was reasonably fit despite covid blocking my gym work in UK and I have put on a few kilos. I did Atiwhakatu walk last August no issues, apart from no lights and a nasty long drop, and Marty said this hut is awesome.

Got woken up at 6 am Saturday morning and rushed out. Picked up Teresa who seemed to believe I had had a leg blown off by a landmine in Vietnam.

Got to Tararuas where Laressa pretended to do a count. 5 of us went on Gentle Annie, wouldn’t want to meet her big sister Hard as Annie.

Got to Rocky Lookout, just, Marty said look at view and I went I need water. He took my pack as well as his and we made it to Mountain House Shelter.

Marty said no way he could do 2 packs up the steps so I manned up, I have never so felt so close to death, my heart beating through my chest, I had to stop every 5 metres, but I would not let it beat me.

We turned a corner and Marty said not far now, but I didn’t believe him, worst was the 3 sets of steps.

Got there and Marty said lets do 1 hour to summit, my reply is unprintable.

Went to bunk to recover,  couldn’t / didn’t sleep due to chatter,  didn’t want to sleep as I would have woken at silly oclock.

Great meal even though rice gate scandal and extra votes/ meals found.

Walked out in rain , not as bad as forecast. Marty said don’t walk on clay but it seemed easiest. I slipped and turtled, couldn’t even get up!

Over a week later and I still cant walk down stairs.

Team Circuit, by Bang

Despite the unpromising weather, five of us (Julian, Alex, Byrus – the Shit Weasel, Mr Grey and me) still decided to do the Mt Holdsworth – Jumbo Circuit counter clockwise. We departed right after the big group gathering.

The walk from Holdsworth carpark to Atiwhakatu Hut was fairly smooth and easy, and it was good to have a warm up along with some “Adult Jokes”. It took us 1.5 hours to reach Atiwhakatu Hut, where we had a short snack break and I introduced the team to some dried olives. Alex and Julian seemed to like them, but they disagreed with my idea that the olive is a type of fruit. The next 750m of climbing from Atiwhakatu Hut to Jumbo Hut (the Raingauge Spur Track) was a typical Tararua climb, quite steep but lots of fun.

Alex and Julian were ahead of me, and I spent 1 hr 50 mins to get to Jumbo Hut. When I arrived they had already managed to get Byrus drunk, somehow.

The weather was getting worse after lunch, and we had a quick gear up before heading off to Powell Hut. As we walked on the ridge, the wind was getting stronger too, I had to stop and wipe the raindrops off my glasses now and then to see the track.

Julian and Alex tried not to walk too fast all the way to give me some company, how nice they are! After walking for about 1.5 hours we met part of Team East Holdsworth somewhere close to the Mt Holdsworth Summit. The rain stopped for the last part of our walk, and we made it to Powell Hut at about 4pm. The trip from Jumbo to Powell took me 2 hrs 30 mins.

Brief summary of East Holdsworth: The large group (18) naturally split in to smaller groups with the lead group arriving at Powell Hut in 5 hours, the last group arriving after 7 hours.

East Holdsworth – contribution by Vignesh

Nostalgia is how I would describe the rationale for doing this hike. If my memory serves correctly, it was two years ago when Laressa organised the Powell hut round trip last time. It was a long trip going up and down yet it was such a lovely trip. I remember meeting Marty and Peter in that trip.

The previous day, I was packing my bag. I knew that I don’t have to carry too much as our trip lead was offering dinner as part of this trip. Nevertheless, I packed my bag with extra food, gas canister and the rest of it.

Saturday began early for me as I was picked up right in front of my house at around 6.30 am by Alex and Sarah, which was a bit of luxury, Thanks Alex :-). It gets even better as the people mover was comfy like a first class trip with inflight serving of fresh strawberries (thanks Sarah). Sarah and I started chit chatting about our daily lives and the talk veered off to work and somehow ended up talking about doing research, insightful conversations. Throughout the drive Alex was a silent spectator, may be cursing himself for giving me a ride 😦

Our first decent stop was at a café in Featherston where we met some of our fellow hikers Maj-britt, Tiffany and Deborah. After the customary hugs, I went to the lovely bakery and got an almond croissant, which was delicious. Alex got his coffee and brekkie and then we drove off without spending too much time. We reached the Holdsworth car park just before 8.30 am to keep up the word to our esteemed trip leader. As we caught up with the group, our trip lead started dishing out the dinner packs to carry to the hut, which she prepared for the whole group. I need another blog to elaborate on Laressa’s cooking skills.

There are three popular tracks leading to Powell hut and few people interested in taking each of the tracks.  Since I have walked two of the tracks before, I decided to take east Holdsworth walk this time. I did not realise our trip lead would also be going with us on this track as I assumed she would take the long Jumbo hut track. This made my walk much easier as a day or two prior to the trip, I was shoulder tapped to lead the east Holdsworth track. Given our trip lead was with us I was not expected to do much, which was quite nice.  

Anyway, a small group decided to head straight to the hut through the Gentle Annie track and three of the hard-core trampers decided to do the hard way by taking the Jumbo hut track. But a large (loud) group of us chose to do the east Holdsworth track.

We started at around 9 am from the car park heading towards Atiwhakatu hut.  I decided that I should lead from the front at least when the track the flat (heehee). Just before the last swing bridge we met a couple of hikers coming in the opposite direction. One of the hikers resembled an Allblack, but we sort of concluded before they came near us that it wasn’t him. Me being me, I started a conversation with the folks who came across. They said that the east Holdsworth track was closed so they decided to return. Luckily, our own navigator Shayne was with us, who with authority pronounced that it is not a problem and an alternate track is not too far from the sign board. Sure, enough when we reached the east Holdsworth junction, we found the diversion sign to the track.  

As we were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive, Tiffany suggested that we should go ahead and she could wait there with few others. I happily took on board her suggestion and started walking up the hill. As Shayne was walking just behind me, I thought it was the right time to let Shayne take the lead and generously let him along with Nikolo and Cara to go past. In the next 5 minutes or so they all disappeared and was walking with Carla till I reached the open. Along the way Jude, Tiffany, Talia and Paul overtook us and disappeared into the forest. As we were going up, it was getting windier and still had a nicer feel to the walk. Carla took all the time in the world to fill up her smartphone with lovely pictures including me 🙂 ( I am sure she would have discarded most of the snaps with my face :-(). We decided to take a break and have lunch around 12.30 that was just before reaching the tops. As we were having our lunch, Scott, Linda, Bharat and a couple of newbies caught up with us. Once we finished our lunch, Carla and I started walking up slowly (what do you expect after a lunch), we caught up with Scott & Linda who were taking their lunch. As we reached the tops, we could see a couple sitting next to a big rock. We thought they were taking their break and enjoying the scenery. As we closed in, I realised it was Paul and Talia who decided to return and wait for others as they thought it was too windy to go further.  

I was scanning the place and started examining the weather. I could feel the heavy winds and the thick clouds coming towards us. But I still did not find that to be that bad to go up. I said to them that I will go up further and check the condition. As I went up, it was getting windier and visibility was only up to 8 meters or so but not too bad to halt. I could still see Carla a bit far behind me taking snaps. I thought perhaps I could go up a bit and get Carla to come to me. After reaching the next top, I couldn’t see Carla from there. I waited for another 10 minutes for Carla to arrive unfortunately I couldn’t see or hear from her. I decided to wait rather than go up as I knew it wouldn’t be wise to move leaving people behind. In the next 5 minutes, for a split second the clouds cleared, and I could see our group walking like a bee line. It gave me the signal to start walking. The track was getting narrower, but I did not find it to be dangerous to walk. In the next 15 minutes or so I reached the T-junction and the signage to Holdsworth trig and the Powell.  

I could feel the strong winds in the open and it picked up strength well and truly. It was pushing me towards the edge of the spear. I skilfully managed to navigate with the double confirmation of the track as well the poles. All along I could hear people talking behind me but couldn’t see a thing. As I reached the next T-junction to the Holdsworth trig and the Powell Hut, I decided it wasn’t the day for photo-op and decided to go straight to the hut. As I was halfway through, I could see someone coming up the opposite direction. As the distance the lessened, I noticed it was Sarah the brave heart going up to the trig. We confirmed our intentions and went the opposite direction. I reached the hut around 3 pm, I could see our group well settled in. As time went by the rest of the group trickled in and the atmosphere changed for good. Most of them were busy sorting out the rooms, having a snack, drying their cloths and sitting next to the heater. I opened my pack and grabbed the soup pack. I felt so good sipping the hot soup after the long walk. Just after 6 pm, the dinner packs were out, and the preparation was well underway to cook the dinner. We all had a hearty meal and a mouthful of dessert. You don’t go hungry when Laressa is around 🙂

Next day, I got up early and sat down having the hot readymade coffee. I bumped into Alex, who hinted at leaving the hut early.  I obediently took note of the hint and packed up quickly after my breakfast. We were the first to leave the hut after hesitantly saying good bye to the rest of group. We pushed on briskly and in no time reached the mountain shelter. At the shelter I took a few minutes to pull the water tube that was stuck in the bag. Once I managed to organise my bag, we started walking down the hill. It was a bit drizzly, which didn’t both us much. In the next couple of hours we were back in the carpark. I got changed and we happily drove back to Wellington and reached home just after 12 noon.

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