Because NYE fell on a Sunday this year, I got both Monday and Tuesday off of work as paid holidays (which is pretty sweet, in my opinion). Ross and I decided that we should take advantage of this four-day weekend by doing the 24km-long
Holdsworth-Jumbo Circuit in the Tararua Mountain Range just north of Wellington. All of our other tramping trips this year have failed due to slips (land slides), rain, weather, etc. so we were hoping to luck out and get a good, solid three-day hike in. Alas, the weather had other plans for us, yet again.
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Looking down at Powell Hut |
Initially we had been planning on going tramping over the long Christmas weekend (which had great weather), but we decided that we probably ought to call our families to wish them Happy Holidays and let them know that we were still alive. We had been watching the weather forecast for Masterton, the closest city to the
Tararua Forest Park, and it didn't look too bad but the day before we left I realized that you could actually check the
weather forecast for the park itself and it was not quite as promising. We decided to give it a go anyway as we had already reserved the huts and gotten a decent selection of scroggin and frooze balls (trail mix/gorp and date-nut-coconut balls, respectively).
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Southerly coming in over the mountains |
The weather was gorgeous on Friday and we caught the evening train out to Masterton and then got a taxi to the
Holdsworth campsite/trailhead. The DOC (Dept. of Conservation) website had said that it was really easy to get a taxi from the train station to the trail head. Admittedly, it was very easy but the website failed to mention that it was also
very expensive. After we got to the campsite and got checked in, we spoke with the caretaker/park ranger, a very pleasant man named Eric. He told us that the weather forecast for the weekend had gotten even worse then when we had checked. Initially we had been planning on doing the ~8km hike into Powell Hut the first night and then spending the second night at Jumbo Hut. The problem is that the winds were supposed to get pretty bad the day that we were going to go from Powell to Jumbo and that section of trail is along an exposed ridge, above the tree line. Eric suggested that we just go straight to Jumbo the first night. It would make for about a 15km day with about 1200m in elevation gain, not undoable but challenging. We decided to give it a go but wanted to double check the weather forecast with Eric the next morning before we took off. We agreed to meet again at 8 on Saturday morning, though the Colorado-mountain-kids in both of us were pushing for an earlier start. Turns out, we should have listened to the Colorado-mountain-kids...



Saturday morning dawned gorgeous without a touch of a breeze down in the valley where we were camped. After meeting with Eric, we decided to have lunch at Powell Hut and then continue on to Jumbo Hut for the night (NYE). The hike up to Powell was steep but gorgeous. It was really interesting to watch the forest composition change as we went up in elevation. We made it up to Powell Hut in time for lunch and talked with some of the other day-trampers who were passing through. A couple had come across part of the ridge and warmed us that it was pretty windy up there when they heard of our plan to continue to Jumbo Hut. One of them also mentioned that the southerly (i.e. the cause of all of the wind) was supposed to hit in the early afternoon. We had been hoping to get across the ridge before that came in but due to our late start getting on the trail we were starting across the ridge right about when it hit.
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Rocky Point Overlook |
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Powell Hut is the little white spot just above the trees on the right. |
After lunch we headed up the trail and into about 80 kph winds with gusts around 100kph. Ross and I are not small people. I'm not saying that we're fat but we're both tall and we had pretty hefty packs on (add another ~40 lbs to our weights). Even with all of that we were literally getting blown over. After a couple attempts to make headway along the trail and picking each other up a couple times, we ended up deciding that it was not worth it and retreated back down to Powell Hut to reevaluate our options.
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Looking out over the Wairarapa region |
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Above the tree line |
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Lunch break at Powell Hut |
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Leaving Powell Hut |
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Holdsworth Peak |
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Ross fighting the wind...and losing. |
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Photo by Ross |
We ended up spending NYE at Powell Hut with a number of other trampers. We met some really nice people from all over the world and had some good conversations while the hut was shaking and whistling in the wind. In the morning the hut was still shaking in the wind and surrounded by a thick fog and blowing rain. Ross and I had a quick breakfast, pulled on our rain gear and headed back down the trail towards the trailhead. We touched base with Eric when we got back to the Holdsworth campsite and he said that it was good that we came down because the weather forecast was calling for 130-140 kph winds and 100-120 mm of rain. He also hooked us up with some friends of his who gave us a ride back into Masterton, saving us from another exorbitant taxi fare.
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Kitchen/dining area |
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Backpacks |
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Storm progressing
Time lapse of storm developing by Ross |
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There goes our view... |
While we didn't end up doing the whole circuit, the parts that we did do were gorgeous and we are definitely going to try to do it again. Some of the other trampers that we spoke with said that the weather becomes more stable in February and March, so we're thinking of going back then.
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Napping while waiting on the train back to Wellington. |