🏔️#53 - TA Resupply Box Drama, Orange Buckets, Rehydration 101, & Lots More.

And we are back with the 53rd NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Thursday/Friday.

One of these weeks I’ll put a video here introducing myself to newer subscribers. Buuuut, once again it’s late Friday night. Maybe next week I’ll have my life sorted.

Anyway, as usual, 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.

Last week’s most clicked link - you enjoyed the hiking funny with people putting rocks in a hiker’s backpack until they notice.

📦 Resupply Box Drama On The Te Araroa

What is a resupply box?

Resupply boxes for thru-hiking are packages hikers mail to themselves along the trail, containing food, gear (socks, fuel), toiletries (sunscreen, soap), medications, and morale boosters (letters, treats), etc.

So imagine…you’ve sent a resupply box ahead while doing the Te Araroa (TA). You’d be pretty excited to receive it when you arrive at your destination.

However, for TA walkers arriving at Arthur’s Pass at the moment, some are not getting access to their boxes. The boxes are arriving at the Arthur’s Pass NZ Post depot, but they aren’t being delivered to Mountain House (accommodation option for TA walkers) across the road, where the boxes are addressed to.

I first came across this drama on Facebook a couple of days ago, but today it has made the news with the development that the owner of Mountain House was off to Rolleston Police Station to see if they can help out. It seems like it’s drama from a couple of months ago that’s holding everything up (sewage leaking and keys ‘lost’).

With 50-odd boxes currently being held hostage, this seems like something Kevin Milne and his Fair Go crew could sort out quickly.

Hopefully it’s resolved soon.

🛖Aotea Track Huts Get A Spruce Up

We are in full hut renovation season now (well, in theory…there was snow on the Tongariro Crossing today). Anyway, I’ll cover more hut stuff next week, but a couple of huts on Aotea Great Barrier Island got a facelift thanks to 15 Backcountry Trust (BCT) volunteers. Full details are in the BCT FB group.

Kaiaraara Hut: After 20 years without any maintenance, the hut got a full clean inside and out, improved roofing, new paint, new shelving in the kitchen area, new bench seats, and a new fireplace backing.

Mt Heale Hut: Got little maintenance jobs sorted, new furnishings, water blasting, and the exterior stained.

The Aoeta Track is one I definitely want to do sometime.

🆕 A Couple Of New Kiwi Company Products

I don’t talk about gear on here too often, but I saw a couple of things this week that are pretty fun.

1. The fitted sheet from Kiwi Ultralight has been the goto fitted sheet for DOC huts for a while now. But Kea Outdoors just launched one with some unique features (it’s 350g vs. 110g), called the Kea Nest. Two different products for the same purpose, I like it. The Kea Nest sold out in five days (another shipment coming soon), so I’m guessing the two features were a big seller given it’s a lot heavier being polyester rather than silk. It comes with:

   1. pillow sheet attached

   2. pillow pocket for all your bits and pieces

2. Luke from Southern Lite Packs posted earlier in the week asking for feedback about potentially adding a zip-phone pocket to his range. The post quickly got 30+ comments and less than 30 hours later?

   He had a new final production version with several features thanks to the feedback he got. If you’re after a nifty phone pocket for your pack, keep an eye out for when they’re available. Features below!

🟠 50 Huts To Get Orange Buckets

After a successful trial, the Greater Wellington Backcountry Network is ready to provide an orange bucket full of cleaning supplies to all 50 huts in Tararua, Remutaka, and Aorangi Forest Parks.

The 12-month trial involved 10 huts, each getting an orange bucket filled with cleaning supplies. In general, all 10 huts were kept cleaner, with people using the supplies. Thanks to Mitre 10 and volunteers, all 50 buckets will be making their way to all the huts.

If you reach one of the huts in these parks in the future and see materials running out, email [email protected] with what is required. Full post here.

😹 Hiking Funny

🍜 Rehydration Principles I Should Know

Just when I thought rehydrating meals was a simple task, I found myself reading this post from Back Country Cuisine. It doesn’t take rocket science to heat and eat one of these meals, but I may have been doing it wrong all the time…

Three things I don’t get right most of the time, apparently:

• shake the bag to separate the dry ingredients before adding water

• after adding hot water and stirring, squeeze the air out of the bag before resealing

• cold water takes about 3x as long to rehydrate meals vs. boiling water. While I still enjoyed a cold Radix Chipotle Lime Burrito Bowl enough a few weeks back, I should have left it to hydrate a lot longer. Especially to distribute the spice better.

🎓 Shaun Barnett Memorial Scholarship Applications Open

If you’ve got an awesome trip in the works, you might want to apply for the new Shaun Barnett Memorial Scholarship. The successful applicant gets $1000 towards their trip, and you’ll also get paid at the usual rates for the story and photos that you’ll write for the magazine that goes

*only open to Wilderness Mag subscribers

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

This last week was solid. One day was spent out at Moke Lake. We made a loop of the lake and after getting scorched in the sun lakeside, we wandered partway up Moke Spur. It’s the start of the route to Ben More, but wow, it’s steep. Fun for some (me)… not for others.

There was also a day trip to Mount Pisa. Parking at Snow Farm ($20 to use the road), it’s quite a nice route, and gets few visitors in summer for the most part. One day I’ll stay at Meadow Hut, which is super cute.

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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