⛰️#47 - Safety Vids, Sock Launch, Weird Stuff In The Bush, & Lots More.

And we are back with the 47th NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Friday.

I'll let you know what’s going on in the hiking scene in New Zealand, along with other related bits and pieces I find interesting.

This newsletter got away on me in terms of length. Next week, I want to highlight more hut and track work that’s been completed recently. There’s some impressive work happening.

If you’ve got a mate who may like this newsletter, send them this link: https://nzhikingnewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Alright, let’s get into it.

🦺 Mountain Safety Council Releases Brewster Hut Video

The Brewster Hut video from Mountain Safety Council has gone live (below). With 26 rescues required from the track (most beyond on the unmarked trail beyond the hut) over the last few years (two deaths in five years), it makes sense they’ve chosen this route. It’s a solid video with some great camera work. The tempo is a bit slow, but I guess they’re looking for clarity.

A friend stayed at Brewster Hut earlier this week and said the hut was full…but there was rain overnight (forecasted). That goes against what the video says “if rain is forecast during your trip, reschedule or choose another track”.

It is what it is I guess…if the video can save someone from being rescued, it’s a win.

😿 Hikers Getting Annoyed?

At work this week (Macpac), from what I could tell, some people are now getting annoyed at the likes of Routeburn, Milford, and Kepler still being closed. It’s hard to convince people the tracks really aren’t safe for most people without seeing the evidence themselves. We just sort of rely on others who we may think are being overly cautious.

Well, Pete and his mates went for a ski/mountaineering trip up towards popular Mueller Hut (Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park) last weekend and had no issues skiing over the hut (they mostly know what they’re doing…you wouldn’t see me up there in those conditions).

That’s quite a large amount of snow! I checked back All Trails for photos of the hut at similar times in previous years, and there was never amount. I think that gives enough of an idea of how bad some of the trails are. Interestingly, there’s no major warning about the snow levels at Mueller Hut on the DOC website.

👻 Weird Stuff In The Bush

I started flicking through the Spring 2025 edition of the 1964 magazine, and came across a mention of a reddit thread talking about weird stuff in the bush (from 5 years ago). Some of what is mentioned:

• A Hilux in a random spot in the bush (picture here).

• Two piles of dead alpacas near Porirua, with a pile of paua next to one.

• A child-sized doll made out of fencing mesh in an abandoned hut.

• You can read the rest here, and here’s a similar thread too. Leave them open for your next visit to the throne.

German Hiker Found Dead

Unfortunately, a 27-year old tourist, Lydia Gottsmann, was found dead near Fox River (West Coast) by a Search and Rescue team earlier in the week. We’ll likely not know exactly what happened to her as she was alone. But it did appear she was doing hikes with various degrees of difficulty based on her (assumed to be) All Trails profile.

A shoutout goes to coffee cart owner Andrew Beaumont. He raised the alarm after noticing the car had been left unattended. It helps to be observant (note to self). Read more here.

🎧 Podcast Recommendation

• Search and Rescue NZ Podcast

I’ve read Phil Melchior’s book, Mountain Rescue, previously. From the couple of episodes I’ve listened to so far, RNZ’s new podcast, Search and Rescue NZ, is a great companion to the book. The episodes detail a search and rescue mission, including interviews with people involved in the rescue from all sides. It’s well put together, with 9 episodes released.

🧦 Norsewear Making Waves With Their Socks

Last year, I won some Norsewear socks…supposedly a great hiking/all rounder sock.

That was the first time I’d ever heard of the brand. Since then I’ve noticed them pop up regularly on social media. Having dug into their story a bit, it coincided with a change of ownership.

Tim Dean is the new owner, and it’s cool to see a sock brand out of small-town NZ making a push into growth via various forms of media.

This week they were on Country Calendar (episode here). The episode kept me interested. The only gripe I have is it’s so merino focused, you’d expect the sock to be 100% merino….when most of them are 55-75% merino.

It seems people do still watch television. Norsewear posted the photo above the morning after the show aired with a stack of orders going out.

Next up from Norsewear was an impressive launch for their newest sock, the Endurance Sock. They even made a 6-minute video about it. About a sock?!?! I think that’s pretty cool.

I’d like it if they continue this trend of being out and about in various media forms, and become a well known, cool, trusted brand.

And, no! They haven’t followed what all the cool kids are doing and making in a toe sock.

My Norsewear sock review (I’m not sure which model I have): They go good. They’re my camping socks, when I’m thinking the toes are going to be super cold and it’s one of those nights where you can survive wearing socks to sleep. I haven’t used them on track as I like my Macpac Trail Quarter socks too much.

🗒️ Is This The Ultimate Food List?

• For a relatively small country, we have plenty of freeze-dried/dehydrated meal options. Their taste is a controversial topic (as is meals on planes), but there aren’t many people who can genuinely rank how good the meals are. Greta Holland can. She tried 51 meals from Real Meals, Radix, and Back Country and made notes and scored all of them. Here’s some tidbits:

  • The Back Country Cuisine Spicy Beef Nachos with a 9.5/10 was her winner: “amazing, beef but also black beans, carrots and something green, it was delicious and had a seperate packet of chips.”

  • Back Country Cuisine took out the top 5 places. I would have lost my money if I was betting on that.

  • Her least favourite: Radix Smokey BBQ scoring 1/10: “what absolute what absolute dirt, worst meal of all meals! Starts off tasting okeyish but by the end you’re gulping down poison.”

• Read the full reviews and scores here.

😹 Hiking Funny

🎁 A Couple Of Competitions To Enter

• Sarah Blair x Jetboil Giveaway - enter here (closes November 19th)

• Specialized x OSM Giveaway - enter here (closes November 30th)

🏕️ Zempire Camping Equipment Expo

If you’re in Mt Eden, Auckland this weekend (November 8th and 9th), Zempire Camping Equipment and Land & Sea are hosting a camping Expo (Free). You’ll be able to see lots of Zempire gear (new range included) and they’ve partnered with Red Bull, Steinlager, and a couple of other brands…so it should be alright.

Details:

• https://www.facebook.com/events/1390350632447959/

• https://www.instagram.com/p/DQar7lpj_7q/

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

There are plenty of places I haven’t been to in NZ yet but they’re on the list. But I got to one of them last weekend…that being Rakiura/Stewart Island.

My partner and I, and her parents, did the usual thing of Ulva Island, Rakiura Track (I’ll write about this eventually…not as muddy as I expected) and the pub quiz.

One thing that stood out to me a lot was the anti-1080 signs and car stickers.

I’ve rarely come across it in NZ, but with 400 humans living on Stewart Island, they’re more divided on the topic. To make it a hot topic about town, in August DOC did the first 1080 drop on the island. That’ll get tempers rising.

Some of the residents of Stewart Island who seem to be enjoying the 1080 drop are the ~105 or so pukunui/southern New Zealand dotterel left in the world. There’s been early signs of nests, eggs, and chicks this year, giving hope the population can start building back up.

DOC Rakiura Operations Manager Jennifer Ross saying: “We are thrilled as camera monitoring in the area has revealed zero feral cat detections for at least six weeks following the operation, however, they will eventually reinvade from areas where 1080 wasn’t applied.” (full press release here)

And no, I didn’t go asking those with anti-1080 stickers on their trucks what their opinions were.

If you want to read more about 1080, consider David Hansford’s book, Protecting Paradise.

Have a great week, hike it up.

As always, reply to this email (or message me on Whatsapp +642041702764) with anything and everything…I’m happy to chat.

Chur,

Jub

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