How to get there

We started from Holdsworth Lodge (booking required), which is about 20 mins drive from Masterton. The road is sealed all the way, but can get narrow and windy in some places. The Gentle Annie Track starts a couple of minutes from the lodge.

Day one started off rough - I woke up to a nagging backache and Jingle Bell Rock playing in my head. I'm still not sure which was worse. After porridge, coffee and making the most of the last flushing toilets for the next 24 hours, we headed up the Gentle Annie Track. Going up, it wasn’t as gentle as its name. Who hurt you Annie?! Later on we learned that compared to the Mt Holdsworth Track, Annie was indeed gentle.

My friend Tia and I had planned to do the Holdsworth Jumbo Circuit (2N/3D), staying at Powell Hut, then Jumbo Hut. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for day two was crap - 30mm of rain and up to 100km/hr wind gusts crap. Not ideal to cross the tops of the Tararua Ranges. We decided to save the circuit for another day and just go to Powell Hut for the night.

This was my first time hiking in the Tararua Ranges, not surprising since they're six hours drive from Whakatāne. I’ve always been told that hiking there was gnarly, steep, and so breathtakingly stunning. It keeps you honest, humble and rewards those who don’t let all those f*cking stairs defeat them.

It took us 1.5 hours to get up to the Rocky Lookout - a good place to have a breather and check-in with people at home (there's no mobile reception at the lodge). The ranges were the clearest at this point, as the clouds only became thicker further up, with constant precipitation and fog rolling through. The track up to the lookout is well formed and steady underfoot.

After the lookout, the track begins to narrow and become more uneven. Watch your footing as it drops off steeply in many place. There's only more uphill to look forward to, but don't worry, the track winds up through a glorious Beech forest. It reminded me of Panekire in Lake Waikaremoana.

We had some of Tia’s cheese and crackers at the junction of Totara Flats Track and Mount Holdsworth Track. Here's where we first met a lovely local out on a day walk to the hut. I don't know her real name, but let's call her Kim because she reminds of a bubbly workmate with the same name. We saw her two more times that day.

Kim was already at the Mountain Shelter when we arrived. Tia needed to use the toilet, so I chatted with other hikers who were either on their way to the hut, and a few making their way down. Before we left, Kim asked us if we had walked this track before. Nope. She warned us about the gnarly stairs up ahead, in fact, every hiker we met coming down told us that there were still more to come.

From the Mountain Shelter, it took us another two hours to hike the last 2km to the hut. That hopefully gives you an idea of the steep terrain. There's approx. 900m of elevation gain from Holdsworth Lodge to Powell Hut (over 7km). We met up again with Kim about 15 mins from the hut - I was huffing and puffing up the stairs and she was on her way down. She gave me another beaming smile and told me that the hut wasn’t far away.

Tia was about 10 mins ahead of me - she had boosted it up the stairs to save us bottom bunks! She knew that our legs wouldn’t enjoy climbing up and down the bunk ladders later on, so I’m grateful for that. She ended up taking a nap while I walked around the hut hoping to get a clear photo of the ranges and the valley below. Unfortunately, the clouds didn’t shift until 1am when Tia went to the loo - even clear enough to see lights from the city below.

We woke up to howling winds and lashing rain. Heading down, we knew that there was about 300m of exposed stairs before it went back into the bush. After another round of porridge and coffee (I’m such a creature of habit), we quickly packed up and got going by 9am. Apart from a couple of small groups that passed us in the beginning, we didn’t really meet up with other hikers until after the Mountain Shelter. The hike down to the car park took us just over 3 hours. We ran into Kim again as we neared the end of the Gentle Annie track. After a quick chat, we made our way to the car and eventually Masterton for a celebration pizza.

Ronna Grace Funtelar is a 40-something desk-fit creative, weekend explorer and cheese enthusiast in Whakatāne, New Zealand. She has a big butt, chunky thighs and shakin’ more jelly than Destiny’s Child. Her creaky knees discovered an appreciation for Type 2 adventures in the bush and mountains in her thirties, and she’s been hiking ever since.

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