New year, new plans for 2023 this was the first year celebrating new years in the great outdoors, my partener and I decided to hike the Holdsworth - Jumbo track for four days even though it can be done in a full day we decided to do it over 4 days allowing us to take our time 2-3 hours each day hiking and givess me time to take millions of photos haha.

Day 1 Carpark - Atiwhakatu hut

It was an amazing four days with conditions changing rapidly, first day was beautiful sunny day no wind and hot, walking from carpark to Atiwhakatu hut following the river after getting to the hut we went for a dip, it was cold but so good then relaxed  that afternoon while the winds had climbed to around 40kph, making it hard to sleep that night. 

Day 2 Atiwhakatu to Jumbo hut 

This was probably the hardest part of the hike climbing 900 meters in 2-3hours to Jumbo hut, again winds were high but the skies were blue. We had to stop every 20mins or so as the gradient of the climb was quite steep and using the roots of the trees as steps again though an amazing walk once you get to the top or Jumbo hut a small intimate back country hut (my favourite of the hike)  the views from this hut were spectacular looking out over the ranges towards Carterton then by that afternoon the clouds rolled in and visabilty was next to none; conditions in the Tararuas can change just like that and you need to be prepared for any conditions. 

Day 3 Jumbo hut to Powell hut 

This was my favourite day of the entire hike traversing the Tararuas taking in the sites and sounds, visabilty was low as clouds had come in overnight so we had to keep our wits about ourselves and pay attention to the track and the orange track markers even though parts of the track were not much wider then half a meter in some places with cliff faces either side; as the day went on the views were amazing making it to 1470m at Mt holdsworth then carried on to Powell Hut the clouds started to lift and the veiws were amazing. 

Day 4 Powell Hut to Carpark 

Powell hut well hut or motel? plenty of people celebrating new years in the bush, on our final leg heading down it only took us 2- 3 hours again to get down on a well visable track dropping down below the clouds but the views were amazing I was able to get a few beech forest photos (which you will see in the images below) amazing scenes as the cloud/mist/light rain gave the beech trees a paintish look in the photos, there was also some unique bird sounds while doing this walk not actually sure what it was. as we got closer to the carpark the views on the ranges were amazing with the clouds hovering just over the ranges as youll see in an image below we finally got to the carpark and our first thought was Cofffeeeeeee.....

This hike would have to be at the top of my most enjoyed hikes will definitly be doing this one again thank you Tararuas 

Regards 

Ray