This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
HOLDSWORTH 7-9 AUGUST 1992 Friday night found us at Mt. Holdsworth carpark, standing in pouring rain, getting ready for an evening's stroll to Mountain House, via Aokaparangi. We set off with good spirits looking forward to the weekend ahead, at a reasonable pace, stopping only momentarily on Hector to admire the view of Wellington's lights below. We duly arrived at Mountain House having to deal with some 5kg rats before entering. After battling the rats we hung them up to kill them the following morning. Brian then pulled out a 250m! packet of Just Juice, inviting us to share it with him. We chastised Brian for such excess bringing that extra 250g into the bush. Nevertheless we each enjoyed a sip before climbing into our pits. After a short sleep, we set off before sunrise, after some murmurings of discontent at only two hours sleep. I gently reminded the others that the British Empire was built by people lying in their pits, and we headed for Jumbo Hut. We stopped at Mitre Flats Hut for breakfast. I decided to use the shelter of the hut to eat our breakfast as the weather on top of Mt Cone was not conducive to the witty conversation that normally ensues at breakfast. I gave the other three a bite size “Bounty” bar to share informing them that they may need the extra energy for the long day ahead. They each thanked me profusely for my generosity. We left Mitre Flats Hut heading along the little known track via Taputeranga to Powell Hut (not a normally planned route but I decided to add a little deviation, for interest's sake). We stopped only briefly on Winchcombe Peak as the clouds had obscured any chance of a view. We trod onwards arriving at Powell Hut to find the FE party about to leave (they had gone as far as Powell the night before). With it pouring with rain we decided to stay a while in the hope of an improvement so we could continue on to Jumbo. The weather failed to improve, so we cleaned the fireplace, lit a fire and settled in. One by one the Medium party, then the Easy party arrived, surprised to find us holed up at Powell. There was some disappointment expressed by our party that we could not safely go on to Jumbo, but I soon perked up their spirits by giving them another bite size “Bounty” bar
A group of scouts arrived later in the day Mike and Wayne seized the opportunity to lighten the scouts’ packs of biscuits with some skilful card playing. As the day moved on more people joined us at Powell By dinner time the nut was packed with people. We prepared our cheesecake dessert (a specialty of mine), placing it in the metre high snow drifts outside to set After the entree and main we had to fight off the scouts to eat our cheesecake. We found the scouts quietened down after hanging them from the rafters by their ankles, and we could enjoy the cheesecake in peace The next morning brought no improvement in the weather, so we set off back to the "Duchess" allowing the Easy and Medium parties some time We arrived at Holdsworth Lodge for some lunch still a little disappointed at our failure to reach Jumbo Nevertheless, we each vowed to return. hoping to conquer the infamous Tararua weather to reach Jumbo
The Punters Allan “Better bring a bucket® McLachlan (Leader and scribe) Brian “Yellow Ribbon" Johnston Wayne "Rocketman" Dodson Mike “Junior” Pratt