Did Holdsworth - Jumbo last week in a day. It's a great walk, but I'm undecided which way is best - you're either going to have a gut wrenching, heart attack inducing slog up to Jumbo, or a knee popping descent down from Jumbo. We did the latter this time.

If you are up for a good two day, it's hard to beat the Southern Crossing (which I can't help wonder if it was the point of the first reply). The climb up to Alpha on day one is long, but not overly hard, and day two is quite scenic from Kime down to Otaki Forks, albeit a bit jarring on the knees still.

Be careful out there, the Tararuas can throw up some nasty weather.

Woah! Just realised that the original question was posted in July 09 by the looks of things. You've probably been and gone and done your tramp by now

Lynskey was it you on the cheap date a couple of months ago at Atiwhaka Hut that called a party of about 5 of us "the rudest people you have ever meet" when we turned up at about 11pm on a friday night?