Gear - WHIN & Whiona WALK Te Wai Pounamu

WHAT WE'LL BE TAKING WITH US:

Thoughts on ultralight hiking

When we started thinking about this venture I became obsessed with the weight of gear.

I pored over American websites that had ultra-ultra lite gear. I dreamed of carrying nothing. I weighed everything we had and wrote it in a book. Then I went and bought new stuff, lighter stuff at five times the price. Then I found even lighter stuff for ridiculous amounts of American dollars. Oh dear. Could I justify a pot that is 75 grams less than the one we had for $120 extra? Well I did.

Eventually commonsense got back some control. Why are we trying to take less? To go further, to go faster, to have more fun? Why?

We realised two things. We are pretty sturdy kiwis, not whippets. Whin is over 180cm tall. I'm a "strapping lass". We can manage reasonable weight packs. Light but safe would be good.

Also we are 50ish and not triathlon types. Even if we only carried 10kgs we would not and could not expect to cover 25miles/40 km in a day, every day. We are not made that way.

So we have traded lightness for comfort. Tramping is one of life's pleasures. We'll enjoy it at our pace. Anyway, I bet we'll ditch some stuff as we go.

Whiona

Packs

We've opted for a combination of lightness, quality, comfort and practicality - which means that "ultralight" isn't an option. These packs come with their own internal waterproof liners that are just like a dry bag.

Whin is carrying a Aarn Featherlight Freedom with camera bags on the front - again to spread the weight. Total storage 67 litres. See his review of the pack here:
Swampthing Magazine.
Total weight: 2100gms

Whiona is carrying a Peak Aspiration with sport balance pockets to spread the weight. Total storage 59 litres.
Total weight 2100gms

Boots

We have chosen sturdy boots with the idea that any advantage lightweight boots could give us would be lost with an increase in vulnerability to injury.

We've been wearing these boot models for over three years now and can't see any reason not to continue.

We have been doing some big road walks to see how they go on long flat days and have found them fine.

Whiona is wearing Zamberlan Vios boots (the second pair she's owned). They are tough and comfortable - their only draw- back is that they have a Gore-Tex inner. This means that when they get wet (this is New Zealand - they are wet all the time), they don't empty or dry easily.

Whin is wearing his second pair of Asolo's. "My first pair lasted for over 1000kms in some of New Zealand's toughest mountains and streams, but de-laminated after a trip around Mount Ruapehu. I reckon it was the volcanic chemicals "melting" the glue. I did a few hundred K's more with the help of a few tubes of Freesole glue and screws."

We have sealed the toe caps and joins between the uppers and soles of the boots with generous helpings of Freesole and expect to get a few hundred more kilometres out of our "new" boots. We use dubbin and ordinary nugget to condition the leather...the soles will fail long before the uppers, so we reckon fancy conditioners are just hype.

Zamberlan Vios

Asolo 535 V without Gore-Tex

Camera

Professional but light - it has to be a mirrorless DSLR.

Whin's got a real nice and small mirrorless Sony Nex 7. It's light, has several lens options and arguably performs as well as (if not better than) any larger digital SLR cameras in the back country. The camera, charger, spare battery plus three lenses weighs about 1300gms. At this stage he'll be taking all of his lenses...but he might get sensible and just choose one...the Macro that acts as an excellent every-day lens as well. This will take 515gms off the weight.

We'll be carrying Android phones for "instant" blog photography.

Walking sticks

Wood is the only way to go...click the image below to find out why:

GEAR LIST

Yeah...this seems really anal...and if you're not planning to walk 800miles reading this would be a waste of your time. But we got many of our gear
tips from other Te Araroa walkers' gear lists. So it's only proper to return the favour.

Whiona spent a lot of time in town with a set of scales - weighing everything from undies to chux cloths.

NB: We're chopping and changing a bit...so this list is not exactly accurate.

FOOD

We are preparing "bump boxes" to mail ahead for stretches of the trail without shops. The five boxes will have up to 12kg of food and bits and pieces in them. We've calculated that we eat about 1.2kg of food a day, so the biggest bump boxes will be for up to 10 days tramping. We've contacted the places we will be sending the boxes to and hope NZ Post gets it right...reading other TA blogs it seems this doesn't always happen.

More about our food here.