27-28 June 2020

Leader: Owen Cox

There were 12 of us on the trip. We stopped at Clareville for coffee on the way to the road in misty damp weather. It was no better at the Holdsworth road end.

So we wandered up to Mountain House and Powell in small groups at different speeds. Rained pretty much all the way.

Powell was pretty full but with the rain, those seven that had planned to go on to Jumbo felt better of it and decided to halt at Powell with the others. On looking at the DoC website I had found that the booking page I came to said bookings opened 1 July and that booking couldn’t be made before then. (It turned out there was another system that allowed bookings, but you only got to that screen through a different part of the DoC website from the point (Places to Visit) in the website that I had gone to). The end result was that we weren’t booked, a full hut and we got a few words from others. We ended up top-and-tailing to take less space and few slept on boards so those with bookings could all have mattresses.

Sunday wasn’t as wet so seven of us headed up Mt Holdsworth in light rain. A bit of wind around the top of High Ridge, or as Marian put it ‘gale force’, but top it was not windy. The rain eased off at Holdsworth. We carried on along the ridge to the East Holdsworth Track. A bit more wind, or gale bits, where some people were blown around. However we got out of the mist and saw some views. Once we dropped off the main ridge we had calm conditions down through the bush and then joined the Atiwhakatu track to meet the others at Donnelly’s Flat.

Five of us (June, Darrell, Niamh, Pam and John) chose to return to the carpark via the River Ridge Track, which connects the Mountain House Shelter to the Atiwhakatu Track.  Although it’s a little shorter than the Gentle Annie Track, the roots and water probably made it slower.  However, our descent was uneventful.  Once we reached the Donnelly Flat Shelter, we didn’t have to wait long for the others to arrive.

Those on the trip were:

Owen Cox, Pam Glover John Glover, Patrick Liss, Darrell Sutherland, Chris Keating, Niamh Dunne, Marian Cox, Marcia Goode, Sue Pate, June Skelton, Kate Livingston

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.