This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
BALDY - HOLDSWORTH (20-22 September) — Sue Charles ‘ ‘The call-of :the paradise ducks woke us on Saturday morning : at our campsite near 'The Pinés': We set off up the Waingawa » © River for about an. hour, en route to Jumbo via Baldy. Frozen o————legs soon thawed when we begdn our climb onto Pinnacle Ridge. After following this up for a cdénsiderable time and puzzling. over why it was taking so long, suddenly through bush Baldy ).2«:Made an unexpected appearance. Michael's "That's not Baldy, it's a_bush with mist on it!" didn't convince us. We were an fact. not'on Pinnacle Ridge but higher, and north of it: Shortly after we were eating our lunch on. Baldy but had to forgo a drink because the tarn there was buried with snow. - The landscape was dotted with patches of thick snow, mist
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“dng pictures of blue sky and the tops appeared through mist "and on‘ one -occasion we even saw Kapiti. Later as we climbed over the jagged Broken Axe Pinnacles I decided, probably hyperventalating at the same time, that this was definitely not the place for me - a cowardly--middle- - aged woman. I heard later that nobody has ever falien off. these Pinnacles, We continuéd over McGregor, Angle Knob and onto Jumbo. From that height’ and with no wind, it was ~ possible. to hear a river; it was just so peaceful. Wwe had = Planned on staying the night. at’ Jumbo but as we were enjoying ye ourselves so much, decided to go further on, over Holdsworth, ‘#% “and then down to Powell for the night. We did this and ended \ up with the hut to ourselves. ae
SSA guncay morning was frosty’and sunny so we opted for tops’ i “travel. When the two Michaels had finished whinging while. « . putting on their wet'cold socks, we left for Holdsworth and .. from there, got very good views of the area we'd tramped the day before, plus 2 lot_more. A beautiful tarn we passed soon ‘had its ice cap shattered when Mike, later joined by. Michael, ‘bombarded it with stones. Why is it that boys, and men, cannot resist throwing stones into water? From Jumbo it was _ down a marked bush track to the Atiwhakatu Stream where there we rested briefly. 'Sacha', a tireless deg, had just arrived from the tops with her owners and insisted we throw sticks: for her to retrieve. From there it was about 5 mins up- ) stream to the turnoff onto Pinnacle Ridge-Saddle. After a I short climb we walked along the Ridge for about 10 mins to. an old blazed track to the Waingawa River. We followed this. until it peterec out then bush-bashed the rest of the way down coming out at the end on a steep bank above the river. Carefully we climbed down: but still managed to dislodge a few — rocks. All made it safely to the river bank where we had a’ late lunch before walking out to the van parked at~'The Pines o--/2
.. prevailed all day, and there was not a bréath of wind. Fleet-
We then drove to Holdsworth and picked up Ian's party. This was a very enjoyable tramp with plenty of variety. For me another piece of the Tararua Jigsaw had fallen into place. Thank you Michael for leading us on'a great trip. i The Tongue & Meat Trios Michael Hollis (Leader). Mike Moran, Sue Charles.