🏔️#57 - Most Popular Meals, Kea Rescue, Earth Sea Sky FTW, & Lots More.

And we are back with the 57th weekly NZ Hiking Newsletter.

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

Alright, let’s get into it.

Table of Contents

• 🥡 Bivoauc’s Most Popular Camp Food

• 🔒 Track Closures :(

• 🌏🌊☁️ Earth Sea Sky Keeping The People Happy

• 🦜 What The Kea Are You Doing Down There?

• 🏛 Politicians Coming Into The Facebook Feed?

• 🚶 Welly Walks → Free Treats

• 🎧 Podcasts For Your Weekend

• 🗒️ Other Track News Etc.

• 🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

🥡 Bivoauc’s Most Popular Camp Food

In a nice show of transparency, Bivouac sent an email out with the best sellers of 2025:

🥇 Best Seller: Real Meals Sri Lankan Curry

• #1 Back Country Cuisine: Beef Teriyaki

• #1 Radix: Ultra-800 Plant Based Chipotle Lime Burrito Bowl V9

• #1 Dessert: Real Meals | Chocolate Cake Pudding

• #1 Snack Bar: CLIF | Chocolate Brownie

• #1 Kids Meal: Real Meals | Mac ‘n’ Cheese Youth Meal

• #1 Breakfast: Real Meals | Banana Oat Porridge

• #1 Vegetarian: Real Meals | Mexi Nachos

• #1 Smoothie: Back Country Cuisine | Berry Smoothie

🔒 Track Closures :(

Well, the rough summer continues for the Great Walks, with the Paparoa Track now closed indefinitely with another slip. As per the DOC website:

• Other track closures of note this week in the South Island:

  • There’s a massive slip (below) on Dart Track between Chinaman’s Bluff and Daleys Flat Hut. So you can’t do the classic Rees Dart Route, but it’s still possible to do some variations.

• Skippers Canyon, while not overly popular for tramping, it’s not ideal that the bridge at the bottom of Skippers Road has been deemed unsafe…with the future unknown for the area. More here.

🌏🌊☁️ Earth Sea Sky Keeping The People Happy

I came across this fun story. Georgia Fitzpatrick loves her Earth Sea Sky fleece, but turns out her partner does too…and they would share custody of the jacket…a compromise, but not ideal.

So she posted on Facebook asking if anyone had one she could buy. People reached out saying they loved it etc, and she did get one in the end (in her update here).

But in the meantime, she learned the jersey was called the Riff Raff, made in 1994. And Michael Ellis, son of Earth Sea Sky Founder David Ellis, jumped into the thread and got a positive reaction:

And a few months later, the NZ Made Riff Raff hoody is back, keeping all 197+ people happy.

There are a few Riff Raff fleeces of the kea, saddleback, and hoiho. You can buy them here ($339 for a fleece 😲 ).

Love a good story like that. One person was in need, but turns out Earth Sea Sky could play a role and make many happy.

🦜 What The Kea Are You Doing Down There?

In a fun rescue story, late last year, a climber was staying at Sefton Bivy overnight. He must not have had the best sleep with a kea screeching away through the night.

Where was the kea? In the water tank.

The lid had been left open, and the kea was being nosey got itself stuck. The next day two members from DOC Aoraki Mountain Rescue went to the bivvy to rescue the kea. Successfully. Apparently, that’s the first kea rescue…impressive. More photos here.

🏛 Politicians Coming Into The Facebook Feed?

Two kiwi politicians made their way into Hiking related Facebook Groups this week.

• The Mount Arthur Carpark which provides access to Kahurangi National Park has been cut off since July 2025. But Hon Dr Nick Smith came out and said all the various stakeholders who make decisions have come to agreement as to how the $1.2 million required will be funded. While it’ll take a while for the road to reopen, at least there’s signs that things are progressing. Details here.

• Celia Wade-Brown mentioned how she’s fighting against the misuse of the International Visitor Levy introduced last year. Nikki Macdonald wrote this great article about how some things have been promised, but not followed through. Here’s the Facebook post.

🚶 Welly Walks → Free Treats

If you find yourself in and around Wellington on Jan 24^th  and 25th, you can walk local tracks for local treats as part of Welly Walks. There are 6 tracks you can walk, where there'll be a box of locals treats along the way for you to take home with you (1 per person).

The walks:

Otari-Wilton's Bush, Cannon Point Walkway, Camborne Walkway, Coast 35, Greytown to Woodside Trail, and Gums Loop Walk.

You can read more about the treats you'll find, and where the boxes will be on the track at this link: Welly Walks goes wild – WellingtonNZ

That's fun! Salted Caramel Cookies, please.

p.s. boxes will be replenished at 9 am and 1 pm.

😹 Hiking Funny

The most popular comment on the post is a good shout.

🎧 Podcasts For Your Weekend

• Craig Potton - Photography, Happiness, and Rock Bivvies | The Tramping Life

  • listen here

• 169: Tramping, Hut Bagging Goals, Cancer and Recovery with Verity Jackson | The Aotearoa Adventures

  • listen here

🗒️ Other Track News Etc.

• Sadly, the search for missing tramper Graham Garnett (66), has been called off. He was last known to be hiking in Kahurangi National Park and has been missing for over 2 weeks. More here.

• Here’s a survey about footwear used by those who hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2025. The most interesting takeaway:

  • Over 85% of hikers were using trail runners, and they tended to be happier with them after the thru-hike.

  • The most popular thing people had on their feet was the Altra Lone Peak, with 19.4% of people wearing them.

• The website HalfwayAnywhere also does thru-hiker surveys, here’s the 2025 links for:

  • Continental Divide Trail

  • Pacific Crest Trail

  • John Muir Trail

I’m guessing there would be interest in a Te Araroa Survey…

• If you’re into dehydrating food/want to in the future, there are some fun ideas in this post from Fiona McConnochie. My favourite would be the Cherry Chocolate Brownie.

• If you like reading lots of stats, you might like this post…

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

It was another mediocre weekend weather-wise, so just around the usual haunts. Though I did bump into a reader while on the local trails, and I ended up playing tour guide for a bit before heading to Beech Tree for a beer. That was fun.

This weekend, I’ll be heading to a new route I haven’t been before. Hopefully it’ll go well, and I’ll have fun stuff to report next week.

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

p.s. get your friends to sign up to the newsletter: https://nzhikingnewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe