By Grace Rotherham, 20 August 2026
On Thursday 20th of August, 6 soon-to-be good pals (Jasmine, David, Chloe, Ruby, Daniel and myself) crammed into a freshly jump-started 7-seater and set off to the end of Holdsworth Road. The tramp began with a gradually inclining trek up the Gentle Annie track, which we powered powerfully up and had a lunch break at the Rocky Lookout. Then we continued up towards Powell Hut past the mountain shelter, which turned out to contain plenty of reading material. Not long after, we encountered snow below the bush line, which was magical in the mossy forest, and we immediately started throwing it at each other. As we got higher up, the snow got more delicious, especially as we added raro to it to snack on as we continued up to the hut.
Powell Hut was covered in snow, and as it turned out, the pipes were frozen, so we had to melt snow on the fireplace to drink and cook with. Some intense rounds of Uno and Ps & As were played, in which we somehow elected a pig as president.
The next morning, the sunrise was just incredible. We were hoping to walk to the summit of Mt Holdsworth and down the east side, but after about 15mins of walking we discovered this was a very snowy/icy/windy option that were weren't really prepared for on a beginner friendly tramp, so we took some photos, threw some snow at each other, and made our way back down to Powell to walk out the way we came. I collected some snow in a pot so I could cook noodles (or snoodles) for my lunch when we got back to the Rocky Lookout, but alas, my pot had other plans and leapt out of my hands halfway there. We enjoyed a rather long lunch break, and dozed in the sun for quite a while and dreamt about fish and chips, so naturally we had to stop in Carterton for fish and chips on the drive back. Carterton has an excellent playground, by the way, and the six pals ended up playing Busted (or snoodle as we renamed it) after our fish and chip picnic.
So anyway, raro, snow, snoodles, piggies and fish and chips make for a powerful trip to Powell Hut with your pals.
