20-23 October 2007
Tararua Forest Park, Holdsworth Road End
Group: Me (leader), Emma, Emily, Rita (assessor / supervisor)
After a hectic Friday spent packing and shifting, before then unpacking, grocery shopping and packing again to go away, I slept really well, and somehow managed to be nicely organised just in time for people to arrive at my new flat on Saturday morning to share a ride to the road end.
The purpose of the tramp was to complete my Gold Young New Zealanders Challenge of the Duke of Edinburghs Award, and therefore we needed to spend 4 days tramping, exploring both the valleys and tops of the range.
My previous attempt at a Gold DoE tramp had been cancelled about 5 days out, as we had planned to complete the round-the-mountain tramp at Ruapehu, but a Lahar had come through and washed away a major bridge, leaving a very acidic river blocking our path and cutting the available track in half, meaning the walk was never going to be long enough.
Rough Plan:
Day One: Holdsworth Road end - Jumbo Hut via Powell Hut
Day Two: Jumbo Hut to Mitre Flats Hut
Day Three: Day walk to Mitre
Day Four: Mitre Flats - Holdsworth Road end
Saturday
Even though it was late October and the weather had been fairly mild for the previous few weeks, there was an almighty storm going on over the tops on Saturday morning, so we decided to head along the valley to Atiwhakatu hut, and then from there to Jumbo Hut for the night, and see where we felt like going on Sunday. It is a very pretty valley, with some cool bridges and the walk in was fairly easy, apart from one massive slip that had obviously re-slipped since the track had last been cut through.
It was quite mild weather wise with just a nice breeze. At Atiwhakatu hut, we met a couple of runners who had tried to get to Jumbo and had had to turn around because the weather was too bad, with lots of wind-driven hail, and a bit of snow as well. We stuck with our decision to head up the hill to Jumbo Hut on the theory that the hut was only just above the bushline, so chances were, we could still make it. Worst case scenario was that we would have to turn around and come back to Atiwhakatu, which although not pleasant, was at least there!
The climb was steep, nasty and slow. And very soon, surrounded by snow / hail / ice. Which was kind of cool, as none of us had tramped in snow before. Everyone was very tired, but got a bit of a second wind when we got to the bushline and started getting pounded by gale-force-wind driven hail! OUCH!!
Later in the evening, the weather settled somewhat, and we got a bit of a view over the rest of the range, which looked rather nasty, and gave us a fair indication that wherever we were going the next day, it definitely involved going back DOWN the hills!
Sunday
Sunday dawned fine but cold, and a lot of the ice from overnight had melted. There was still enough around for a snowball fight though!
We decided to head down the old track that would bring us out closer to Mitre Flats, rather than head back down the Rain gauge track again. It was actually a really lovely piece of track, still well enough formed and marked, and we were at the bottom before we knew it!
Right near the bottom of this track is a really great-looking campsite that I keep meaning to go back to. Its a nice sized clearing, with a fire pit already built and easy access to the river. We stopped here for a while for lunch, and everyone started looking a bit tired, which was worrying.
We continued on up the valley, eventually reaching the bridge thats as far up valley as the track goes. Its probably the longest and slowest bridge we crossed all weekend. There are a couple of fingers and toes, turned-round-backwards moments on the track before here, which were fun.
From here, the track goes UP to the junction with the track to Baldy and across Pinnacle Ridge. At the track junction, we sat down for food and a discussion. Everyone was shattered, and we had at least another 3 hours to go at current pace before we got to Mitre Flats Hut, from where we would have to come all the way back through where we were. There was also a technical bit coming up that had seen many experienced parties get lost for hours at a time, going around in circles. So the decision was made to return to Atiwhakatu Hut for the night, and go from there up one of the spur tracks to Powell Hut for Monday night. This way we were closer to the road end in case the exhaustion got worse in anyone, and we knew what was coming with regards to tracks, distances and times.
It was a fairly straight-forward tramp back to Atiwhakatu, although it took quite a while, and after crossing an unbridged stream between the two Jumbo Hut tracks, I managed to put my hand in a patch of stinging nettle. This meant a brief stop was required to dig out antihistamine cream, and at every small bit of flowing water I could get to, I was dunking my hand to try and cool it, as it felt like I was wearing a very tight balloon glove and my hand was effectively useless. All up rather unpleasant. But at least we got one laugh out of it - when I pulled my hand away from the nettle and realised what I had done, I yelled "Ow, it burns, it burns!" in what was apparently quite a comical tone. I couldn't not laugh at the imitations over the next 36 hours... :)
Monday
A short day distance wise, but it still took us the better part of 6 hours, from Atiwhakatu Hut via Mountain House to Powell Hut because we were all SO sore and tired! The weather clagged in on us as well as we went, and eventually we were walking in quite thick mist. We stopped at Mountain House for a pre-lunch snack, which wound up being soup. And Damn that was the best cup of soup I have ever had.
It at least wasnt windy on us! It cleared a little in the afternoon, so we spent some time exploring the close surrounds of the hut, which neither Emily or Emma had been to before, and then tucked in to some really quite average backcountry cuisine dinners. We had two flavours, and so everyone had some of each. This was great because only about the first 3 or 4 mouthfulls of each actually tasted any good!
Thankfully most of us still had hot chocolates and the like around, as the huts gas heater was broken, and with only four of us in the hut for the night, it did NOT get very warm at all! (Most of us had dinner sitting in our sleeping bags at the table)
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we got a text telling us that a southerly front with wicked winds was due to come through soon. Given at least two party members had spent most of the night awake becaus they thought the wind was going to blow the hut down the hill, we figured anything that was worse than we had now was worth getting out ahead of. So we bolted down breakfast, threw our raincoats on (it was hosing down) and bolted out the door fairly early.
By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, it had dried out and warmed up (a little at least), which was lovely, but would have been nice to have had that weather on our way down! The track down was much the same as always, although this was before the recent re-build of the lower part of the gentle annie, so there were lots of steps that had fallen away. But the road, car and fish n chips were just a short walk away, so we pounded down the hill with our much lighter packs, ending back at the carpark by Noon.
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