This is a companion cache for Skindo's “Stairway to Holdsworth” (GC57WBH) on the Gentle Annie track to Mt Holdsworth.
Skindo's cache is below Rocky Point and less than an hour's walk from the carpark at the end of Mt Holdsworth Rd. This one is further up the track, in fact not too far below Powell Hut, so around 3 or 4 hours walking from the carpark … AND … up lots and lots more of DOC's staircases built during the 2013 upgrades of the most popular and accessible Holdsworth tracks – Atiwhakatu and Gentle Annie.
With the heavy tramping traffic and high rainfall on this track, addition of the wooden steps in the steeper and/or more fragile places has almost certainly reduced erosion and rutting of the track. The stairs in the steepest part of the track up towards the hut have certainly made some of the previously difficult sections easier and safer although negotiating their ENORMOUS risers can be hard and sometimes painful work for those of us with legs that are either geriatric or short (or both). I find descending them harder on old knees than ascending.
However, if you are standing at the top of the stairway beside GZ, you are at about 1140m altitude and nearly at the hut - just 15 more stairways to climb and you can be sitting at a table in the hut!
Anyway … choose a nice day, sign the “intentions book” at Holdsworth Lodge, and take a stroll up to these “Stairway” caches and be the judge of the stairs for yourself. This cache is right beside a stairway, so please rehide it as found, out of muggle-sight. However, there are often significant dumps of snow at this altitude in winter, and the cache could well be buried. If this is the case, please consider leaving it for another time because, as I found when preparing this hide while there was still snow on the ground here, when it melts, there is a good chance of the cache 'nest' collapsing and exposing the cache. So, please consider leaving it for another time when there is no snow.
Don't forget to bring your own writing implement.
The cache is a small screw top plastic jar with a red lid, containing just a water-proof log.