This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
31* October, 1998
[) amian and I had already had one attempt at this trip a few weeks earlier, but we had changed our plans due to bad weather. This time the forecast was good and the hills were beckoning — but no one wanted to come with me (some lame excuse about a party). So Friday night saw me curled up at Holdsworth Lodge shivering in a little sleeping bag substitute and the alarm set for an early departure in the morning. But I failed to wake up when the alarm went off, after being kept awake half the night by drunken idiots clunking around the lodge. I got my revenge in the morning, clunking loudly a few times before heading up the Gentle Annie track about 5.15 am. I decided to take everything with me in case I felt like heading out to Otaki or Kaitoke instead. It was a calm misty morning and I made good time up to Mountain House. The day slowly brightened to reveal stunning views — of the inside of a cloud. I arrived at Powell at 7.30 am and surprised the trampers who were just getting up. I headed over Holdsworth, with the cloud lifting enough to allow easy navigation over Isabelle. The track down to Mid Waiohine was well-marked and I arrived about 9.30 am. I had a quick stop for morning tea and started the steep ascent onto Aokaparangi. This took longer than I’d hoped and I was glad to finally break out onto the familiar tussock tops of the Southern Main Range. By then it had clagged in totally and faint drizzle came and went as I continued south towards Maungahuka. ~ “The track was muddy and slippery and the peaks ~/ seemed to get taller and steeper as the day wore on. The drizzle turned into steady rain and I was wet through and shivering by the time I reached Maungahuka Hut at 2.00 pm. I put on dry clothes and munched my sandwiches, and when I left the hut at 2.45 I was starting to feel human again. By then the rain had eased and the stroll over Concertina Knob was pleasant, if still lacking in views.
Lisa Lee-Johnson
It was a lovely run down through the bush, with a few stops to locate the faded old track markers and I to climb over trees that had fallen across the track. Not far above the river, I lost the track again and managed to lose half an hour by heading the wrong way along the riverbank before I found the bridge and hut. The river was still high after the recent flooding and there were numerous slips, and trees washed up along its banks. I had a brief afternoon tea stop at Neill Forks Hut, conscious of how late in the day it was. On my first ever trip in the Tararuas it had taken a full day to walk out from Neill Forks and here I was setting off at 5.00 pm. The slog up onto Cone Ridge was steep and slow but I managed to make it down to Totara Flats with half an hour’s daylight left. I thought briefly of staying at Totara Flats Hut, but decided to push on. Darkness fell a short way up Totara Creek and everything except the track went downhill from there. My headlamp battery faded out and I kept losing the (very well-marked) track. I pulled out the spare battery, inserting it by feel. I crossed an endless number of knee-deep sidestreams and eventually the track disappeared and I relocated it on the other side of the river.
The track up onto the Gentle Annie seemed to climb an awful lot higher than 400m. After a ridiculous length of time, I staggered through the last bog and onto the heavenly, flat wheelchair route of the Gentle Annie. Thinking grateful thoughts towards the trackbuilders, I almost managed to enjoy the last few kilometres down to Holdsworth Lodge. Arriving shortly after 11.00 pm, I didn’t like my chances of hitching home that night, so it was a cuppa soup for dinner and into my pathetic little excuse for a sleeping bag, which I’d carried all day. I snuggled down between a couple of hut mattresses and slept deeply and soundly. Up at dawn for a cuppa soup breakfast and a pleasant hitch back into Wellington.