Thru-Hiking Gear -Te Araroa Trail

hi my name is Rachel Cooper and I've recently walked that tiada dollar trail in New Zealand the trail runs from the top of the north island all the way down to the bottom of the South Island because I'm a New Zealander I've spent a lot of time in the North Island so I decided to walk from my house in Wellington catch the ferry across to the top of the South Island and then walk all the way down to blood I got 700 kilometres of the way through my journey and could finish up and Lake Tekapo but because of the corona virus pandemic that mean I had to stop my trail early as New Zealand was going to lock down I'm really hoping that in the summer of 2021 I'll be able to continue my trail and I'm really looking forward to being able to do that today I have all of my gear around me and I'm gonna make a quick video showing you what I took in my pack and also what I wore along the trails when I was preparing to go on this trail I was thinking a lot about the impact that I wanted to have on the environment and living a really minimal lifestyle and for me all of that started when I was gathering all of my gear together for the trail so I tried really hard to use what I already had and to borrow things from friends and family and buying things brand new was my last resort I have had to buy some things new and the stuff that I haven't bought is really high-quality and I know it's gonna last me for many adventures in the future so I am really happy with the things that I did have to buy and so first up that I'm gonna talk about is my pack it's an osprey Ariel 65 litre pack usually it comes with a lid and the lid itself is cool it becomes its own day pack and it's removable from the pack I didn't need the the lid on the trail I didn't need the extra space over weight so I took that off and the pack itself weighs about 2 kgs so it's a bit on the heavy side but I really liked it because of this anti gravity system within the pack it meant the way it was helped mostly on my hips not really on my shoulders so I really liked that about it I also really liked the hip belt pockets they're really big and you can stall up the snacks and your phone and I also used my camel back within this pack so I there's a slot for it in the back that I could put my camel back in and it comes across and it straps onto the strap here so that was the perfect I really loved this pack and would highly recommend it next is my tent it's a matte pack solar light multi pitched tent this tent was my mum's and I borrowed it for the trip thanks mom um I didn't have to use this team very much because a lot of the time and the South Island these huts all along the way so I would have slipped in this tent less than ten nights I would say and I didn't really like this tent one thing I did like about it is it's quite tall so you can sit up in the teens and pack your pack for the day but I couldn't ever really pitch it properly I would pitch it the way that I thought I was supposed to but many times during the night and the struts on either side would fall in and I end up with wet tint on my face and it just wasn't very pleasant I didn't really enjoy using this team I'd prefer a free-standing one person tent instead in the future next is my sleeping bag it's a mech pack Overland 400 sleeping bag it is it goes down to negative one degrees Celsius comfort reading and it weighs 0.3 1.0 8 kgs and for reference this tent weighs 1.29 kgs I really like the sleeping bag it was really warm and it did up really close around your face so it kept you really warm it's a great sleeping bag and I'm using it heaps of adventures in the future the sleeping mat it's a Katmandu insulated amet it has a pillow built in and the pillow is it's the foot pump for the matters well to pump it up it weighs 1.04 kgs it's a bit heavy and a bit bulky considering I only needed to use it less than ten times of the trip but for me it was a good investment and I'm going to use it a lot in the future so I really liked having the sleeping mat with me moving on to what I wore on the trails first up is my sunglasses these are just cheap ones from the petrol station but they are really handy to have my hat is a very some hat it was a really great hat to have on the trail and taking it on all my adventures in the future my sports bra is a Montreal merino sports bra I really liked this one because it's lightweight it dried fast and it didn't smell that much and it's also black because I went into the hot pools in Hema Springs and you can kind of get away with it looking like togs to go into the hot pool so that was nice I have a merino shirt the brand is fit if I tee I found this in the back of a little ski store in Wellington and it's been best shirt it's held its shape it's got a nice high neck and long sleeves so I got some sun protection and my straps from my pack didn't rub on my shoulders it's been a really great shirt I've loved wearing it and except is my shorts these are not your classic hiking shorts these are luring women fast and free like running shorts there are lycra material and ish 6-inch shorts and length I loved having these shorts with me on the trail the reason why I got them is because my thighs rub together when I walk and I really did not want chafing when I was on the trail so I had these and they were great and the other thing I really liked about them is they've got pockets in the side so I could have my neck's and my phone in my pockets which was really nice the only thing about these shorts they're not made to be worn 24/7 so they didn't dried it well on my body so what I would do is take them off at the heart at the end of the day and dry them out and put on my long pants so once I got into that header then these were great onto my socks I wore a gingy and gingi toe socks these were run 2.0 version I carried two pairs of these on the trail and I absolutely loved them I usually get blisters between my toes but with my in Jinju socks I didn't get a single blister between my toes they're really comfortable and I got the mid rise ones because I wear trail shoes so they're similar lengths of similar height yeah I highly recommend these socks and nearly all the hikers on the trail with these socks as well they've been really great for my shoes I wore an evade to rock ledge two-seven-five trail shoes I have had these shoes for years I would have done over 2,000 caves in them now probably and I love them so much they are really light and really wide I've got quite a wide feet so these are great for being able to spread my foot out fully on the ground and they've also got mesh all around them so we may get which they dry really quickly and the South Island's there's heaps of stream crossings and your feet get wet like nearly every day multiple times a day so being able to dry and drain my shoes out really fast it was a really good thing on this trail a few more things over here I took my garden and Raich Explorer on the trip and I mostly took it because it's a personal locator beacon so that's a crucial thing to have trial like this it also does maps has topographical maps on here but I didn't need to use these because I used so I I took my Garmin and reach Explorer on the trail I took this because it's a personal locator beacon which is crucial to have on a trail like this for your safety it also has maps on here but I didn't need to use these because I just got hooked guides on my on my phone got hooked guides have topographical maps they show the different huts and water sources and they also have really up-to-date comments from the hikers that have just been through so I used gut-hooked guides for my navigation the gunman also has messaging on it so I can send messages to make friends and family even when there's no cell phone service and that was a really helpful thing for me to have and my hiking poles I've never hiked with poles before and told this trail I did the Queen Charlotte and walked all the way at a head lock just before the Richmond Ranger's people were telling me I was crazy to think about going over the ranges without poles so I panicked and bought the only pair of poles and head look and this is them they lasted kind of well I really didn't like them that much to be honest they are a little bit heavy and they weren't super reliable they are extendable but then sometimes when I put all of my body weight on them they would collapse back in and it was kind of dangerous at some point so I probably wouldn't recommend these ones these are Australians there's heaps of really good pole brands out there and hiking poles was definitely something that I really loved heading on the trail so moving on to what a took with me clothing was I had my boots and beanie it was great nice and light and yeah I loved having this with me I had my long sleeve merino it's an icebreaker shirt it has a nice hood that comes right up close around your face that was a really good one to have on a trail my mom's real merino leggings I liked these because they've got handy pocket on the side for midnight snacks and they kept me nice and warm as well at night and my final piece is my merino socks from Katmandu I've had these for years and they were really comfortable I'm glad that I took them because and the South Island there's a lot of sand flies and mosquitos pellet didn't work for me to get rid of the sandglass so when I got to the hut and the evenings and have to put on all of my warm layers to cover up my skin including my socks so the sand flies couldn't get me so this was almost an fly protection I had my insulation layer which was a Montreal puffer jacket I love this jacket it's keep me warm on so many features and it's yeah super warm it's a little bit heavy and bulky in comparison to other puffer jackets that are around because it's not specifically designed for lightweight hiking but I really like it and what I did was stuffed it inside my dry gag for my sleeping bag and that was my pillow every night that we were in a hut so it was a very multi-purpose jacket for me for my raincoat what I wore on the start of the trail was a old mech pack gore-tex raincoats I've had this for a pack eight years and it was my brother's before that so it's been very well-loved over the years but it didn't really stand up to the test of the rain this this time around so I probably am NOT gonna be taking this on the next part of my trail and instead I've got a new epic jacket from Burton they've been super generous and been supporting my trip on the chatter doors so I've got this epic jacket I'll be taking with me for the rest of the trail I've worn it during quarantine here in New Zealand and it stood up to the rain so I'm really excited to being able to take this jacket with me on the trail and my final piece is my gendell's I take handles everywhere I go it's really nice to have these in the hut it's nice to have them to walk down to the stream and when you would go into towns and a relaxing for the day it's really good to have a pair of generous we don't have to put my trail shoes on again really great to have and they're nice and light and easy to carry so moving on tonight food-related stuff I I took mech pack pots these are a 2 a 2 pot system the bigger one I would boil my water for my dinner and during the evenings and this would be the lid for it and often when my food was cooking I would take the little pot off and have some snacks in it beforehand some hot soups or porridge or tea so that was really nice having the 2 pot system which I wasn't expecting to enjoy that much it was really great and here I store my gas canister it fits perfectly in this pot and I had a little microfiber towel I just got from the supermarket cut it in half so my cooker I've had this cooker for years it's a 360 degree cooker it screws on nice and tight to my gas canister and it's been a really great cooker it's nice and light folds up small and it's been perfect I took a 20 liter dry bag this is a mech pack dry bag I really liked having the stray back to store my food and keep it all in one place I also kept my electronics in here for the day so it was raining a lot and the most important thing about having a dry bag was for the rats and mice and the huts they get straight into a bag and go straight for your food so everyone would hang up their dry bags from the rafters with all of their food inside and that stops the rats and mice from eating your food while you're sleeping so having a dry dog was crucial and I also when I was cooking my dinner I'd get out this little glad rat bag and here I kept my bamboo spoon nice and light and I've had that one for years I was a gift from a friend I have my little bit lighter and I had my knife just a little fold away knife this one's an op Neil knife and it's been really good to have on the trail it's nice and light I also took a little diary with me I was expecting to be really vigilant and writing my diary everyday that really doesn't happen but it was good to have along the trail fern any notes and specific things I wanted to remember I really liked having that with me so on to my three little Ziploc bags what I have in here I'll start with my electronics bag I've got my headphones that I used everyday for music and podcasts just to keep me entertained I've got my phone charger my plug that goes into the wall it's got a little USB port for my phone and it also charges my power bank so this is a while way power bank I don't know how many milliamps it is it's just ten on it I don't know what that means and I've got my little charger for that which is a USB port as well plugs straight into the one that I use for my phone and I've got my he torch it's a Black Diamond Cosmo heat torch it's got heaps of settings on it for a lot of lumens and then half and yeah even less it's also got a red light on it which is really good for being in the huts that late at night or early in the morning so you don't disturb people too much and the other thing I like about it is it's got a lock on it so you don't have to worry about it turning on and your pack and running out all your battery so you can lock it and it you know that it's not ran out of batteries and then I also carried three spare little triple-a batteries for my head torch onto my day to day use thanks I've got some sunblock which is really important for being on the trail out in the Sun every day I use this a lot I've got my toothbrush it's just a little bamboo toothbrush and I also carried a little travel-size toothpaste which I don't have in here at the moment I've got my minstrel cup which was super crucial to have on this trail I love using it it's reusable easy to clean and you don't have to carry any waste with you because you can use it over and over and yeah you can wear it for 12 hours so it's really good to have on some big walks on new days on the trail I also carried a little shampoo I wasn't expecting to carry shampoo but I picked this up along the way because it was really nice to be able to wash my hair and I used it for soap and my body too and after a week out on the trail getting really hot and sweaty this was a really good thing to have finally is my little medical kit so in here the things I use the most was painkillers I carried panadol and European and I used antihistamine tablets and anti is like beast and cream because but my first week of the trail I got a bee sting and it got really infected and I enjoyed having to get off the trail and go to hospital so having lots of antihistamines and beasts and cream was really really important for me and continuing on the trail and a lot of people got bee stings along the way so I was able to help them out by giving them some some tablets as well I carried some throat lozenges I just got a bit of a sore throat on the trail so I picked those up and I carried a lot of plasters small ones and big ones for the back of my heel because my shoes starting to wear but them there I carried equitable for my water filtration I most of the time didn't filter my water but I wouldn't recommend this it was differently taking a risk so I carried equity before some of the water sources where I wasn't too sure about where they were coming from and whether it was safe so they were really good to have with me I also carried nail clippers a pair of tweezers some antiseptic cream for my wound I carried my fat country Hut past it's a dot cut past that you get for allowing you to stay in the huts along the way I also carried my money and my debit card in here and I carried some bandages and strapping for a wound I also carried a needle and some striping tape and so that's all my stuff I hope you found it interesting and if you ever have any questions please get in contact with me I'm always happy to talk about the trails and what to take along the way and yeah I hope you enjoyed the video

Channel: Rachel Cooper

Views: 5,274

Rating: 4.974359 out of 5

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Id: fXwiDUQpkJk

Length: 20min 21sec (1221 seconds)

Published: Tue May 05 2020