31st March - 1st April

Who: Kieran, Achim, Hazel and Pia

Friday, its time to go tramping and as gear custodian I was at Hunter Car park at 5.30pm to help the first groups get the gear for the weekend. Three groups left around 6pm all headed towards Otaki Forks, but with very different goals.
I had to wait a couple of hours before leaving. Kieran finished work late so we left Hunter car park at 8.30pm heading over the Rimutakas to Holdsworth road end. We arrived at the road end as planned around 11pm but in a lot of rain, not planned!
We slept in the shelter and Saturday morning we were off on the track about 7.30am. The first part is the boring track towards Artiwhakatu Hut before the East Holdsworth Track leaves the main track. Then its up, up and up... Before you know your on the tops and if the weather allows, you'll get beautiful views and we were partly lucky as we got over the low clouds. Achim and Hazel was the fast ones so Kieran and me became natural uphill buddies
We reached Mt Holdsworth just before lunch at 11.30-ish. Lunch was enjoyed on Isabelle just a little hour later - the sun was not as visible as we hoped it would be so we continued down hill towards the bush-line this time bush bashing (tramping without a track) towards Francis Creek.
The bush bashing went pretty good, though I was happy to have Kieran and Hazel there, two experienced bush bashers. The right way to go for the first real bush bashing where its not bush craft where you more or less know where you are at all time!
We followed the spur down, had a little back and forth between two spurs at a point but we decided to follow the right one in the end. The spur ended in a quite steep bit just before the Francis Creek, but without too many slips and no injuries we suddenly stepped onto the river stones. From here we just had to follow Francis Creek to Waiohine River.
Some of the people we met at Mt Holdsworth told us that there would be a nice pool just where Francis meets Waiohine. But we didn't have to wait until Waiohine to meet pools Francis Creek had its own deep pools, so we had already been swimming before the big 50 m pool which was upstream and therefore not that easy to swim. Kieran lead the climb around the pool to the other side where the river crossings started.
We had to follow the river for a few km, but river crossings and rock tramping after being cooled down from the swimming just messes up my coordination so it took me a while to get all the way without falling. But we reached the place where the hut should be and it was. Its a hut which is not on the map but known from person to person. It was a nice one though with foldout chairs, a table and small water tank all underneath a tarp outside the miniature hut like a little veranda.
Dry clothes was the first thing on our mind. Then the cheese, crackers and tomatoes as a starter was consumed before dinner was made. It started to get dark and we ended up in the hut in our sleeping bags looking at maps while having our desert (nice homemade chocolate cake).
Sunday - the alarm went off but we slept through it. But eventually we got up, had breakfast and the time we all had feared arose: taking on the cold wet clothes from yesterdays swimming. Yep, it was cold but after a few meters bush bashing uphill, I was happy for my merino and felt relative warm again. Bush bashing uphill is so much easier than downhill. We had a few stops on our way up and first me and then Hazel saw deer because we were in front. Suddenly we reached the bush-line and started heading towards the old flight wreck.
I got to the flight wreck a bit after the others. Think my turn in front and my attempt to follow the pace of the others uphill had taken most of my energy when we reached the bush line. So I trembled through the high grass and tried to avoid the leatherwood and eventually I reached the wreck as well, not that much behind the others.
Lunch was held at the memorial for the two pilots that died in the crash, which is located just at the ridge on top of the wreck. From here it went even more up towards Angle Knob. The last bit before Angle Knob is quite exposed and it took me a little while to get past it with help from Kieran. It was only my second trip over ridges like this one. Achim and Hazel on the other hand looked like mountain goats, just running up the sharp ridge.
Hazel have a little competition to visit as many huts as possible in a year so she wanted to visit McGregor Biv. Achim and Hazel went down and up to the Biv. Iin the meantime Kieran and me went further to Jumbo Hut and had about half an hour break before they came and we continued downhill to Atiwhakatu Hut. 50 min from Jumbo to Atiwhakatu is quite good (for me at least) and in a bit of rain. The last boring part - Atiwhakatu to Holdsworth road end, this time in rain and the daylight starting to go dark.
Dry, clean clothes and a ride back to civilization, with a little Kebab stop in Carterton before Rimutakas and Wellington!
A really hard but good trip with no chance of running anywhere afterwards - my legs have been aching all day... Thanks to Kieran for taking me along

- Pia