Te Araroa - 3kg Ultralight Gear

g'day my name is zach my trail name is captain hook and today i'm going to be talking about the gear that i used for my three thousand kilometer or eighteen hundred mile through hike of tay [Music] adara now disclaimer before i even get started this video is just what showing what works for me um it obviously won't work for everyone so before i even talk about my gear i would firstly like to discuss ultralight philosophy and why i think that it is the most important role in uh going lightweight and contrary to popular belief it is not who can afford the most expensive lightest best-in-class equipment nor does it mean you are carrying insufficient equipment putting yourself in danger running out of food etc so to demonstrate a point we will be comparing two like a dudes and what their sleep setup is now do you guys carry sleeping socks big woolly comfortable ones do you guys carry a pillow inflatable one do you carry uh thermals long johns do you carry a sleeping shirt now do you carry an inflatable mattress now just by comparing these two dudes you can see how much money has been saved by the guy that chooses not to take these luxuries versus the guy that has now does this mean the guy on the left is putting himself in danger no does it mean he is going to run out of food in the back country and depend on others absolutely not this pack that i use everything in it cost me a thousand this just goes to show that you don't need to spend all the money in the world to get the lightest equipment it's just making sacrifices eliminating redundancies hopefully this will clear up misconceptions about how saving weight doesn't have to be expensive nor is it dangerous so now let's finally discuss the gear that i used my through hike across new zealand uh we'll start off with the pack and the pack here is a 24 liter pack that i made myself i sewed it with my grandma and it was awesome first pack i've ever made cost me like 40 to make unreal lasted the whole trail um did the trick and uh yeah big stretchy outside pocket made out of a t-shirt um no hip belts some shoulder strap pockets um and yeah did the trick i could squeeze about four days worth of food in here five was a real struggle but fortunately the most i had to carry the entire trail was five days through the richmond ranges carrying on we'll go on to my water setup which was just a one liter water bottle i use a sport cap on my water bottles and these are absolutely essential and they are not available in new zealand so if you're coming from overseas make sure you bring some spares if you have some international friends maybe get them to ship you some over if you live in new zealand because there is nothing worse than having a twist stop dropping it in the dirt as you're hiking ah i freaking hate it so yeah just one liter water bottle and a one liter catadyne b3 water filter now this was my total water capacity it's two liters didn't need any more than two liters with the catadynes people say that they clog up quickly they don't tend to last as long as soya squeeze but my friend eli taught me to clean these with hot tap water not boiling water because that will melt it but just hot tap water shake it around make a cocktail and yeah um cleans it out this lasted the entire trail and it still doesn't have any flow issues so that's great moving on my trekking pole i used two trekking poles for the north island and one for the south i went back down to one trekking pole because i wanted to focus on my gate and use my core walk properly instead of being so dependent on trekking poles now this is just a black diamond ergo trail which is like a cheap metal one which means it will not snap in half like a carbon fiber one new zealand these drive very deep into the mud kind of like snow and you lean on them and they will break so having a bendy metal one is better because i can just bend it back telescopic because it's much more adjustability with my tarp pitch and putting it in my pack it only takes up this much room as opposed to this much with a folding one and the tip doesn't puncture anything when you stash it now down here we have my toilet paper bag with some hand sanitizer um yep it's essential of course we have my tent stakes i would just carry six mini groundhogs they're great 10 grams each cost 20 bucks so never never really broke i think i broke them one in two through hikes so yeah they're gross um shoulder strap pockets this one would have my phone this one just has sunglasses and headphones that's pretty much all i needed and on the back panel here is my sleeping mat it is a nemo switchback sick cut down to six panels i also cut it narrow and rounded the edges so i have made it 160 grams and this cost you know about 70 bucks so yep it's not very comfortable and it's not for everyone but it worked for me and yeah never pops so now going inside the pack it is a roll top and on top of the pack leaves my tarp now this tub is another thing that i made myself it's a made out of 1.1 seal poly pitches with one trekking pole and it kind of has a pyramid shape very similar to a zpax pocket top and yeah 180 grams 6.3 ounces cost me 30 to make and it worked an absolute tree moving on you can see my pack liner is rolled down and that is so my wet tarp or my wet rain jacket doesn't affect anything inside there's two layers the bottom part of my pack is in the dry bag and the top part is anything wet and i can separate them by using this gossamer gear pack liner which is great so on top we have my little diddy bag and inside here i would carry a 10 000 milliamp rav power charger get three charges for my phone for that which was enough for about seven days worth of hiking um just a samsung power outlet and a cable um the cable that i used in new zealand actually was a micro usb with a little usbc cap on it so i can charge my power bank and my phone with the same cable okay my wallet um which is passport size i am an aussie so i had to take my passport to new zealand uh my knife actually this would usually live in my shoulder strap pocket but yes my knife is a tiny little open or number four and i picked this up in wellington halfway through the hike and the only reason i carry this knife is to cut up avocados and it is just big enough my toothbrush is a bamboo one that i'd cut in half and it does have a little plastic cap and i swear by these because it protects the bristles and makes the toothbrush last twice as long my torch is a tiny little nightcore tip it weighs 23 grams and costs like 20 bucks usb rechargeable and it clips on to your hat like so and it has three levels of brightness one lumen 35 and 350 and it lasts more than long enough but i did only have to use this a handful of times because summer time in new zealand the days were like 15 hours plus so i was usually asleep before it got really dark um toothpaste and lastly first aid kit um very very tiny minimal first aid kit typical ultralight first aid kit if you look up on youtube others they will be pretty much the same it's just a mixture of pills leukotape um maybe some antiseptic cream thread and needle that sort of stuff so yeah further down is my clothes bag my clothes bag was just my mosquito head net um i didn't worry about getting anything wet because it was inside this dry bag here we have my fleece there's a lightweight kuyu koike peloton 97 140 grams or something and i recommend every hiker in the world ever gets a lightweight fleece it is an active layer so you can wear it in the cold and still run up a hill you do not overheat it does not trap heat like a puffy or a rain jacket so you can breathe you don't sweat and yeah absolutely love this i would sleep in it most nights also has a hoodie love it recommend a lightweight fleece for everyone here's my beanie it is just a tasmanian tiger fleece beanie it's kind of a generic 100 weight beanie cost 20 bucks weighs 27 grams so yeah super light beanie spare socks in gingy toe socks this is what i wore for my through hike um just a little crew cut ones and uh yep did the trick had no blisters the entire trail next is my puffy jacket it is a montbell therma wrap ul no hood um there's a synthetic puffy jacket weighs 240 grams it is not very warm i will be going with a different puffy for my next hike but it worked for new zealand because i hiked in peak summer and it was not very very cold at all so i rarely wore this it was pretty much my pillow every night on the trail [Music] next is my wind pants these are patagonia houdini wind pants 110 grams there are lighter wind pants on the market but this is what i have um and i would just wear these for walk um or in town when i was doing my laundry and yeah i do the trick uh spare pair of underwear i wear ex officios two pairs all i need um here's my rain jacket it is just a cheap 20 rain jacket it weighs 180 grams or something the thing with rain jackets is you will get wet no matter how big or thick or expensive they are if you're not getting wet from the rain you're getting wet from your own sweat overheating so i like to carry a lightweight rain jacket that is much doesn't trap as much warmth so when i'm exerting myself hiking up a hill i don't overheat and drown in sweat um so as long as it uh keeps the rain mostly off you um yeah any sub 200 gram rain jacket does the trick absolutely fine despite what others might say and then lastly is my town shirt just a random um freaking hawaiian shirt from the upshot um yeah this was like my clean dry shirt i might wear that to bed uh if my hiking shirt was wet and i would wear it in town when i was doing laundry or just something clean so i can go sit at the restaurant moving on is my food bag this is the only dcf or cuban fibre thing that i own so there you go i don't spend all my money on human fiber to be lightweight inside i would have a bamboo spoon i got this from some japanese shop and my favorite thing ever is a bamboo sushi mat i am a cold soaker i do not carry a stove but i carry a sushi mat and this is awesome because i can cold soak freeze-dried rice or i could just carry out like the uncle ben's pre-made rice ready to eat rice and i would make sushi and yeah it works great and a lot of people that carry stoves were quite jealous that i was eating sushi so there's a little tip for everyone make sushi on trail that's awesome going on here is my bibi and i would use this under my top to keep sand flies off me which are a huge problem in new zealand they drive you nuts so make sure you have good bug protection especially for camp so i wasn't in this busy i was wearing my rain gear um and pretty much everything to cover up all my skin but um yeah this thing weighs 160 grams cost 100 bucks and it's been on 2-3 hikes now i love it i probably will continue to use it and yeah i think it is an essential for top camping now i wouldn't use a ground sheet either this was just the ground sheet too [Music] and lastly down the bottom is my quilt this is a tear gear quilt it's a down quilt made in tasmania in australia i love this thing it is a minor seven degrees celsius or 20 degrees fahrenheit rated this thing has never let me down ever it is super warm and i think it was overkill for the ta because the coldest it ever got was four degrees on a pass at 10 am otherwise the average night time temperature was anywhere between 5 and 15 degrees for the entire through hike this is because i hiked in peak summer i never experienced the shoulder seasons so i'm sure that it does get cold but i only had a three month through hike and this was overkill i wish i had like a zero degree bag or you know 40 fahrenheit or something because this was overkill and then again it's a redundancy and weight but it's what i had and i didn't want to spend any more money on a new quilt and it works great i absolutely love it and uh yeah now that is everything that i carried in my 24 liter pack not a lot at all just the bare minimum and that is how i can be so lightweight um i was comfortable the entire trail i was never cold never ran out of food never put myself in danger in fact i think carrying such a small light pack it can be safer in some cases if you are crossing a river if you are navigating through a lot of blown down trees if you're doing a little rental to mount rental that's a sketchy section on the south island and i felt much safer and much more confident in my stride having no weight on my back dragging me down so it is safer in that manner now the clothes that i wore are pretty much what i'm wearing right now i would wear a synthetic hawaiian shirt from the up shop 10 bucks i had a few of these on the trail uh just some nike running shorts um random cap this one is my ta cup my shoes were zero teraflexes which are barefoot minimalist shoes they have no arch support no anything and i absolutely loved them my first pair lasted the entire north island my second pair never arrived so i got some ultras in christchurch but um yep absolutely love these and it also goes to show that no you do not need giant clunky leather boots to go tramping in new zealand i would pair these with dirty girl gators and my gingy toe socks and this is what i wore and it was also what i slept in i don't mind sleeping in dirty clothes and uh finally i'll show you my shelter setup this is the type that i made and as you can see it is kind of like a pyramid with an open front door there's just one piece of seal poly and it was cut up smartly to get this sort of pitch and yeah it worked absolutely fine obviously would be careful where i pitched it i didn't want water going through the front there but um yeah i didn't have any problems getting wet under it and and you can see in here my gear that's where my pack would sit this is where i would lay and yeah we'll have a look so this is my bivvy and my pillow was just my clothes bag there my mat would go inside the bivvy and my quilt and it was also my ground sheet and um yeah this worked absolutely fine and i would pitch it up against a rock or a tree if it was windy but every night i kind of camped in a forest or at a caravan park so never really dealt with super extreme conditions while camping at night time so there you go thank you guys for watching i hope i gave you a few ideas some things to think about if you have any questions feel free to ask more than happy to talk about them in the description i'll have my lighter pack and links to my tart build and my backpack build if you're interested in that now hopefully this video gets a few views uh which might make me get off my butt and finish the editing of my ta videos i did film the entire trail i've just been too lazy with editing so yeah send me some messages and be like come on zach make some freaking videos already man but yeah thanks guys peace out

Channel: Captain Hikes

Views: 47,514

Rating: 4.9263673 out of 5

Keywords: Te Araroa, thru hiking, ultralight, backpacking, tramping, new Zealand, camping, gearlist, NZ, trekking, long distance, hike, island, walking, hiking, TA, Te, Araroa, light, tarp, Xero shoes

Id: 9tmk0_MpRUY

Length: 17min 57sec (1077 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 08 2020