By vita jerram, 16 August 2025
What a lovely weekend of adventuring in the Tararuas.
Setting off on Friday afternoon, we made it to Holdsworth as darkness was setting in. Headtorches on, we had a quick walk into Atiwhakatu Hut. Hungry hungry we were. A shared potluck, bringing pasta toppings to share proved to be very tasty. I personally ate a lot of feta.
As we were digging in, two lads rocked up, nervously asking if there was any space in the hut (which there was). It just so happened that the third member of their party was my neighbour… so almost no males were allowed, but we made exceptions.
A semi early start the next morning, and we all enjoyed the porridge, flavoured with smoke and brown sugar. Stu the dog even tried some of the smokey brown sugar porridge, but sadly didn’t finish off all our leftovers.
We then split off into groups - some back out the way we came to the road end, a group up to Mountain house shelter, Felicity going up to Jumbo and over to Powell on a solo mish, and my group off to Mitre Flats hut, via Baldy.
We had a lovely stumble through roots and streams, and a nice little steep climb to the snow on Baldy. Some great views here too.
Robyn and I made a haiku on the way down:
Oh, Baldy Baldy,
You once had some luscious locks.
Where did it all go?
A swim, and then cosy fire making, banging beans, stories and an early bed time ensued at Mitre.
Our walk out the next day to the Pines road end was swell, and we visited my favorite swimming hole in the region with its own rope swing.
Huge thanks to my Dad for bringing some fantastic end of tramp snacks and soup, plus doing us a taxi service back to Holdsworth.
Vita