11 – 12 January 2025
Seven of us left Hastings at 7am on Saturday morning to head down to the Mt Holdsworth car park just south of Masterton. We arrived at the Holdsworth car park around 10am, finding it packed and having to do a loop before finding one of the last few spots where the club van would fit. The weather forecast for the weekend promised strong gusts of wind across the tops, and potential light drizzle on the Sunday, we considered taking alternative routes to the top in the chance the weather would deteriorated on the Sunday making the cross unsafe but ultimately decided to take the main route up the Gentle Annie track past the Rocky Lookout, Mountain House Shelter, and upwards to Powell Hut.
Climbing upwards to the Rocky lookout we encountered a number of people heading both directions, with some even planning to complete the full circuit that day. We stopped at Rocky lookout for a snack and to wait until all members had caught up, from here you could see Powell Hut above us and sun reflecting off Jumbo Hut’s roof in the distance. The Rocky lookout looks to be a popular stop for young families to head to before walking back down. From here we continued onwards to Mountain House Shelter where we stopped for lunch before beginning the final climb of the day upwards to Powell.
The climb up to Powell is steep in sections, however this is mainly done via a large number of stairs so you are not trying to scramble up a steep section of rock or dirt, the first step upwards for a number of these is however very high our shorter members noted. Most of the track upwards is sheltered from the wind amongst the trees, except for the final couple hundred meters of the climb after you emerge from the bush line. Powell Hut itself is luxurious compared to the usual backcountry huts, there are 4 bunk rooms, two sleeping 10, and two sleeping 6, each with solar powered lights and the hut is also equipped with gas cookers.
Sunday morning greeted us with mist, on and off light drizzle, gusty southerly winds and visibility of maybe 50 meters. Two members decided to head back down the main track and 5 of us set off upwards with the goal of getting to the top of Mt Holdsworth. From there we would then decide on if it was safe to continue to Jumbo or if we would head down the East Holdsworth Track. The track upwards was exposed, with us being buffeted by the occasional strong wind gust and visibility remaining poor. The track itself is fairly easy to follow, despite the weather, with the track itself being well worn making it easy to tell where to go as we continued onwards up to the top of Mt Holdsworth and along to the East Holdsworth track junction.
At the junction we checked to see how everyone was feeling, and despite the conditions not improving, they hadn’t worsened, so with everyone keen we continued across the tops to Jumbo without any hint of the potential views the track can be know for and eventually reached the top of Jumbo and descended down to the Hut. We stopped at Jumbo Hut for lunch thankful to finally have some shelter from the weather and a moment to warm up with a hot drink.
After lunch we started our descent down the Rain Gauge spur, thankfully as soon as we were below the bush line the wind and persistent drizzle that had followed us along the tops disappeared, so we were able to the start of our descent very smoothly. Going down the Rain Gauge you descend steadily through beech forest with the occasional step section and, very typical of the Tararuas, there are tree roots everywhere.
About ⅔ of the way down Jude was unfortunate enough to get her footing wrong and broke her ankle (at the time we weren’t sure if it was broken or very badly sprained). After pausing to assess the situation we distributed the gear from Jude’s pack to the rest of us, and unfortunately we still had a way to go before we would be in a position where we would be able to use a PLB to allow Jude to be helicoptered out. Progress was extremely slow as we made our way down the hill to Atiwhakatu Hut. It took us roughly 2 hours from when Jude broke her ankle to reach the hut, Jude having somehow managed to walk the entire way.
At Atiwhakatu Hut we used a PLB and within 20 minutes a helicopter arrived form the local search and rescue team in Masterton, picking Jude and and dropping her back to the van in Holdsworth Car park. The rest of us walked the track alongside the river back out to the Holdsworth car park finally meeting up with the members who had come down the main track significantly later than we had originally planned. Due to the delays we decided to stop for Fish and Chips in Masterton as it was approaching 7pm and still had the drive back to Hastings ahead of us.
Party: Anne D, Colin J, Jude H, Lou C, Nic W, Simon W, Susan L.