Jumbo-Holdsworth Day 2

Awake at 6:30am to the sound of birds chirping, then out of bed around 7am with a few photos, some weetbix and a slow cold packup and I was on the trail just after 8am. The walk/climb to Powell Hut was a bit of a grind but got good cellphone reception on the way up so got to have a good chat to Emma which lifted spirits a lot. The views form a rocky outcrop nearing the edge of the treeline were beautiful (looking back across the Rimutakas and across to Wellington in the far distance. After an hour or so of fast paced tramping I arrived at Powell hut, signed the guest book, took some more pics and moved on. Next was the climb to Mt Holdsworth (only a vertical height gain of 270m from Powell Hut but it felt a lot more!) I could see people on the top of Holdsworth so raced to catch them, I did just just as they were leaving and beginning the traverse across to Jumbo. So I had a quick bite to eat (pita bread and that plastic cheese like McD's use) on the summit of Holdsworth before catching up to the three (who were the three that went past me at 10pm last night). They were more than happy for me to walk with them as they too were going to Jumbo hut for the night. We took a leisurely pace to the summit of Jumbo (1405m) and I found out their names (Tony, Jo & Carlie). We quickly descended to Jumbo Hut, claimed our beds, had lunch (well they did), had a nap (once again they did while I attempted my diabolical sudoku). Just after 3:30pm 4 of us (Toni, myself, Andrew and Carlie) decided to go walk to a plane crash site on shingle slip knob but after looking at a dodgy ridgeline just below Angle Knob we decided not to go there. We motored back to Jumbo Hut and arrived back at 6:30pm making a nice 3hr return trip. Dinner was a back country cuisine then time to complete my sudoku, chat to everyone and hit the sack.