Jumbo Holdsworth in a day

Angela was off to Maud Island, so that left me at a loose end for the weekend. Janine was keen to try doing the famous Jumbo Holdsworth loop - a clear gap in my tramping CV that needed plugged. But, Janine's idea had a twist - she wanted to do this 2-3 day tramp in just one day. Could we do it? Only one way to find out.

We headed out to the start point, Holdsworth camping ground, after work, and got there just in time to set up our campsite and head out for Secret Pizza. Delightful as always, sitting outside enjoying the scenery and yummy pizza.

We headed back early and set our alarms for stupid early times. We wanted daylight on our side tomorrow!

5:20am - my alarm chirped. I'm not a morning person so I'd prepared. First task: billy on the boil for coffee. Get dressed. Emerge from my tent. Eat a One Square Meal for breakfast. Drink my coffee. Grab my pre-packed daypack. Ready. Ahead of schedule and before Janine. Which was good, I don't want to be the one that other people are waiting for. 

Meanwhile Janine discovered she didn't have her tramping trousers with her. Disaster! So she became probably the first person to do Jumbo Holdsworth in her pyjamas. Which were Lululemon leggings and worked perfectly well. 

 6:17am - we were both fueled with caffeine and instant food bars and off we set, as the dawn light filtered through the trees. The first section, Gentle Annie, was relatively easy. A nice gravelled track with gentle-ish upward gradient and big steps. 

7:15am - Rocky Lookout, a spot where you always have to stop and take photos. I don't make the rules.

8:15am - Mountain House Shelter, and both of us wanted to find and bag a 'secret' hut, Pig Flat Hut, close by. I'd tried and failed to find it before, but this time we had a GPS waypoint marked and some vague directions on how to find it. We went back to the River Ridge Track turnoff, and set off the opposite way down the spur to the southeast (ish), following what looked like it could be a rough track. Quite quickly the 'track' turned into dense shrubby stuff we had to push through. When we emerged into more open forest we had been turned in the wrong direction and the nice clear contours on the map didn't appear to be reflected in the undulating ground. We headed back towards where the hut would be, traversing across the slope and trying not to lose any more height. Then, I saw a glimpse of a structure through the trees. There it was!

A salubrious hut it was not. A rough structure from corrugated iron and blue tarp, I suspect it was built by scavenging old materials from one of the old Mountain House huts as it was demolished. Nicely built, with a structure of felled trees and some bunks made of branches and chicken wire. But showing its age with a missing door and quite damp inside. Good in an emergency but I think I'd rather stay in Mountain House Shelter just up the road if it came to that. 

Alas no log book to be found, I think I'll bring an exercise book with me if I ever go back.

I couldn't see any particularly obvious track going away from the hut, so I confidently proposed that we just take a compass bearing and walk directly uphill, back to the track and near the River Ridge Track turnoff we left from. Seemed like a good idea. Until we hit the dense brush again, even more dense and impenetrable than before. We pushed and shoved and appeared to be going nowhere until we heard a woman calling out to us. "You're nearly there!" she said. I emerged to meet her, in trailrunner garb and not wanting to stop long. "I've made that mistake too", she said. "Head due south from Mountain House next time, it's much easier." And then off she went.

We could tell we weren't the only ones who had done this - we found an empty carry pouch and a water bottle that had been ripped out of packs. In exchange, Janine lost a bottle of hand sanitizer. For the next person to find.

9:15am - right, back onto the primary mission. The track was quite busy. A mix of trail runners doing what we were doing, but in just 3 or 4 hours (whew!). Families and groups of friends, heading to more modest destinations like Powell Hut or Mt Holdsworth. All happily chatting away.

10:15am - Powell Hut. We were keeping to DOC time (even with our 1h detour) which made us happy that we could actually finish this thing. It got steadily steeper from Mountain House to here so we were grateful to take a good long stop here, eating second breakfast and recharging our water bottles. (A good feature of this trip is that there are huts every 4 hours so you don't need to carry much water.) 

Last stretch to Powell

Looking back to Powell after a nice rest

Onwards

11:45am - Mt Holdsworth. Our highest point! It was quite the slog from Powell to here but now we were going to be gamboling along the ridge. There were a bunch of teenagers who'd come up from Powell and were heading to Jumbo, munching on their lunch. A quick snack stop and off we went.

I was a little worried we'd be exposed on the tops but I needn't have been. The weather was beautiful and it was a relief to have a bit of a breeze up here. I had a light (and very bright flourescent!) running jacket that I think I put on briefly at one point but we were usually too hot rather than feeling any chill.

The track over the tops was wonderful with views out to the Wairarapa and down into the Tararuas proper - and over the Tararuas to see Kapiti Island and the Kapiti coast.

1:15pm - Jumbo. Soon enough the weathered signpost pointing us down to Jumbo Hut appeared. We'd done the "up". We'd done the "along". Now for the down.

1:30pm - Jumbo Hut. Time for lunch. There were a few other people sitting outside, and some folks inside playing cards and making a raucous noise, not in a pleasant way. We moved a bench away from direct ear-line of the front door and ate our wraps and cheese and crackers and whatnot. We'd brought a special motivational treat for this occasion - one can of beer. That we shared. It made all the difference. 

Now it was time for the infamous Raingauge spur track. It has a reputation for being super steep. Well, it's not all that. We've both done much steeper. But the goblin forest, turning into wonderful beech forest, was really pleasant to walk through. The track continued to be nicely formed; I'd been in a quandary about wearing tramping boots or sneakers for today, I'd chosen sneakers and that had been the right choice. Here and on steep descents on the tops it occasionally crossed my mind that better grip and more a more solid boot would be better - but that had been few and far between. 

Yep sneakers are fine

3:30pm - Atiwhakatu Hut. the family favourite and it had been expanded to 32 bunks since I'd last been here. One to love if you have kids, one to avoid if you don't. Two wee girls appeared from the nearby river as we arrived and chatted away to us. They gave us good advice for the track ahead - "There's a spot that's really muddy but you can find a log to walk across." Always good to get forward intelligence like this. One girl gave me a tour of the hut, showing me all the bunkrooms (there are four separate rooms which is nice) and what the common room looks like. They were all having so much fun!

We were nearly home, just the final, flat, easy section that follows the Atiwhakatu Stream to go. I don't know whether it was because we'd dismissively underestimated this section of track, because we were pretty tired, or because we just wanted to finish - but this final and objectively easiest section seemed harder and longer than all the others. It dragged by as we trudged along (but definitely remembering to cross using the log through the muddy spot). "MAX LOAD ONE PERSON" signs got ignored as we just focussed on getting there and resting our weary feet.  

It was such a relief to get to the places like Donnelly Flats and the Gentle Annie turnoff that showed we were nearly home. When we finally passed through the gate to the Holdsworth campsite we were weary and yes, definitely ready to finish. 

5:41pm - Holdsworth Campsite and DONE. 

There was no nicer feeling than a camp chair and a warmish beer on a chilly bin table. 

The feeling afterwards was more like after a long run than a long tramp. The trail itself was "easy" and we had very light packs but 28km of walking meant everything had been used up and I had soreness in weird muscles and joints that normally don't have to do any work. 

Holdsworth campsite was sunny, calm and wonderful. We tucked in to sausages and baguette and cheese and crackers and it tasted great. 

As we were sitting around enjoying the evening we heard strange booming sounds like distant artillery. Was there a 21 gun salute being fired for some reason in Masterton, the closest town? Weird. 

The next morning we packed up and headed into Greytown for breakfast at the local market. As we got back into phone reception range my notifications lit up. Volcano and tsunami in Tonga, communications cut off, many deaths feared. THAT WAS THE BOOMING AND THUMPING WE'D HEARD. From 2000km away. So scary.  

That was an incredible day. Thanks Janine for coming up with the idea and organising it. I wouln't have thought I could do it. It was a very different sort of day to anything I've done before, and I want to do it faster now. Is this how trailrunners start?