I’m planning to head out to hike the Te Araroa in New Zealand this (northen hemisphere) winter. This roughly 3000km long trail goes from Cape Reinga at the top of the North Island all the way to Bluff at the other end of the South Island.
I’ve scheduled up to 5 months of time in New Zealand to complete the trail, which should easily allow for some detours - but packing carefully will be somewhat essential. Even though the body eventually gets used to carrying overloaded backpacks up and down mountains, its much more fun with a smaller load.
Backpack
I settled on the Gossamer Gear Gorilla 50 backpack, which comes in super light at just 860g. I also never had a backpack with hip belt pockets before - which are great to have quick access to my phone to navigate or for snacks. I love the giant outer stretch pocket on the back to store rain gear and other bits and bobs I need throughout the day. I’ve also attached a bottle holder to a shoulder strap for easier access. Trying to fiddle with a water bottle stored in the side of my backback always made me curse.
It will probably not be spacious enough to fit everything on the very longest sections when carrying a week worth of food through the Richmond Ranges. But that’s exactly what plastic bags and straps are made for.
Overall this has been a great upgrade over my old Tatonka 65+10 monstrosity, and I like how the smaller volume incentivises me to not pack a lot of “just in case” items I’ll never really need.
Sleep & Shelter
I initially wanted to go with the single-walled Gossamer Gear The One. But it failed me already on my first outing during a hike in England. The factory-taped seams were leaking all over the place and the guy-line attachements were also coming loose after just a couple of nights. Probably just bad sample, but I also realised that I prefer the comfort a double-walled tent provides.
- I now ended up with a Durston X-Mid 1. A double walled trekking pole tent with tons of vestibule space. Overall I’m much more comfortable with its geometry and ability to withstand higher wind speeds. And with 807g without stakes still lightweight enough. A neat extra is that its not made of Silnylon, but of Silpolyester. This makes the outer fly not sag when wet.
- Enlightened Equipment Revelation Quilt 20°F/-6°C with a comfort rating at around zero degrees celcius. Shedding some weight and not constantly getting tangled up in a mummy-style sleeping bag anymore? So far I’ve been loving it.
- Therm-a-Rest NeoAir; the most comfortable sleeping pad I’ve ever used and great for sleeping on my side. Its definitely not the quietest mat, but it never bothered me and I thankfully bought it after they improved it.
My down jacket can be stuffed into one of its own pockets and serves as a nice pillow. But half of the time I just sleep without a pillow anyways. I guess on very cold nights it might supplement quilt to make up for its missing head enclosure.
Shoes & Clothing
In the past I’ve been a fan of heavy, sturdy hiking boots. I’ve gotten into multi-day hiking and camping as a student, so my gear was basically focused on being affordable rather than light and compact. And thus I felt much better lugging heavy boots with ample of ankle support. As I’ve been cutting my base weight roughly in half, I’ll stick with trail runners this time. And last time my hiking boots also simply ended up rarely drying and eventually moulding in New Zealand, with its frequent rain and near daily river crossings.
- Two t-shirts, two anti-chafe undies I normally use for long-distance running, and two pairs of hiking socks. And some long johns for cold nights. You get filthy either way - I prefer not to carry much but wash it frequently.
- A pair of running shorts and my trusty running leggings for cold weather.
- Patagonia rain jacket and Berghaus rain pants. Way too heavy, but they’re what I have.
Cooking
I’m not a big fan of overpriced, dehydrated hiking meals. They are never enough to even remotely still my hiking hunger. So I carry a relatively large pot to cook up copious amounts couscous or bulgur together with whatever I bothered to carry.
- MSR Pocket Rocket - I’m a big fan of this lightweight, tiny burner.
- Toaks Titanium Pot 900ml, which holds a small gas cannister and is so weirdly light it feels like plastic.
- Titanium long spork and a small Opinel folding knife
- Foldable, flimsy wind shield from Decathlon. I’ll probably ditch it and DIY something lighter.
Electronics
- My clunky Samsung A14 smart phone. Not my first choice, but had to buy it as a replacement after killing my phone on my cycling trip around France.
- Kindle ebook reader; I love to read a lot when I’m alone on the trail – especially in bad weather.
- Anker 20000mAh battery pack – a tad overkill, as it lasts me up to a week depending on how much I use my phone apart from navigation.
- Anker solar charger – heavy, but I love the independence it provides. It’s pretty easy to attach to the backpack to charge the battery pack while hiking.
- Some Type I wall plug charger for New Zealand that I still have to buy.
- A rechargable head torch from Petzl. I normally rarely use it as I see very well in the dark – but this time around there will probably be some night-time hiking. Either to avoid crowds on popular sections, to avoid potential heat, or to simply pump out a few more kilometers for the fun of it.
This is probably the section where I could still optimize the most but refuse to do so for luxury and cost.
Photography
My phone takes shitty pictures, or maybe I’m just snobbu. So I’m carrying my trusty old Sony A7, which I bought used back in 2014. The only lens is a Samyang 35mm f/2.8 prime lens – its super light and tiny and takes tack-sharp prictures. Whenever I miss a wider lens I just take a panorama and stitch it at home. The only thing I sometimes miss with this setup is a telepohoto lens for longer landscape shots - but I’m still not convinced they’re worth carrying the weight.
As I’m hiking alone this time I’ve decided to splurge on the Peak Design Camera Clip to easily attach the camera to my backpack’s shoulder strap. I always hated storing away my camera somewhere on the sides or inside of my pack – and now I can’t even ask my hiking buddy to get it out for me.
Together this weighs in at an extra 650g - but well worth it.
I also carry a tiny USB-C SDCard reader to backup the photos onto my phone along the way. Shooting RAW+JPEG also lets me easily share pictures with my friends as I go.
Other
There’s probably lots of obvious stuff I’m forgetting to write down right now.
- First aid kit with band aids, gauge bandage, wound disinfectant and ibuprofene.
- Deuce of Spades trowel – because using sticks or poles to dig a hole ain’t no fun.
- Katadyn BeFree water filter to make it easier to wild camp along the way without having to worry if the stream is clean. Last time in New Zealand we never had a problem drinking from streams unfiltered. But this time I’ll spend a lot more time hiking through the farmlands of the North Island.