🏔️#71 - Long Drop Gone Wrong, Cobbler Tips, The Gear I Take On An Overnight Trip, & More.

And we are back with the 71st weekly NZ Hiking Newsletter…I was away this weekend and left my laptop charger at home…so this is a late, late edition 💃

I haven’t quite decided yet, but the last newsletter for the season will be in mid-May (10th or 17th). I’ll be heading overseas, finding trails, and avoiding the Queenstown winter.

That reminds me, this time next week the Great Walks will officially be ‘out of season’. That doesn’t mean the huts are closed, they’re just not bookable and are first come, first served. If there’s a weather window that works…you can still have a great time on them.

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. And yes, it’s been conservation week over the past week…I’ll be going into that more next week.

Alright, let’s get into it.

💡 Quick Quiz

What does the ‘R’ stand for in R-Value, relating to sleeping mats? (I got the question from this podcast episode).

A. Resistance to heat flow

B. Ready to insulate

C. Real heat distribution

D. Rating

I’ll pop the answer at the bottom of the post.

🗒️ Track News Etc.

Is DOC Sensing When You Poop? Not exactly, but DOC and One NZ are forming a partnership to create efficiencies related to hut maintenance. Toilet maintenance is a massive time and $$ cost for DOC (with over 2000 in DOC’s network). So they’re planning to use sensors in ~20 hut locations to help figure out when maintenance is actually required vs. regular planned maintenance. This could be a game-changer. Press release here.

I had to segway into this somehow. A new fear has been unlocked after reading about this long drop floor collapsing which left a poor damsel in distress, waist-deep in 💩💩💩

Last Chance To Enter Photos 📸. There’s just over a week left to submit your photos for Wilderness Magazine’s 2026 Wilderness Outdoor Photographer of the Year competition. There are three categories:

1. Huts and camping

2. Out there

3. Wildlife

Check full details on how to enter here.

Shoe Care Tips From Cobblers. With the hiking season finished for many, your boots and shoes might be getting a rest for the next few months. Ideally, they’ll be good to go for next season, but there are some things you can do to keep them living their best life as long as possible.

This article is great, it collates information from various cobblers with actionable advice (that you can actually action). Some of the things I could be better at:

• rotating shoes…I’m guilty of wearing wet shoes when I could just wear a dry pair that I might not like as much, but will do the trick for a day trip.

• cleaning them…I do occassionally, but a clean cloth with warm water to get dirt and mud off will help keep them better longer.

• storing shoes…we have so many shoes at the front of the house…it’s better to keep shoes you don’t use regularly in their cardboard boxes…I could maybe do that. Kicking shoes into the pile can’t be good.

And keep your shoes away from the fireplace at huts! There aren’t many cobblers around NZ…it could be a fun gig?

Routeburn Makes The Top 10. After struggling with travel content going digital first, I've felt like Lonely Planet has made a comeback in the last year. I even came across their list of top 10 hikes in the world, which includes the Routeburn Track. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/best-treks-in-the-world

I don’t know the nitty gritty details as it’s women’s only, but ladies, you might want to check out Hazel Phillips’ Facebook group Secret Women’s Mountain Business group. There’s some kind of alpine learning group trip that I assume she is hosting, in Ruapehu at the end of July.

😹 Hiking Funny

🗒️ More Track News Etc.

Be Better, James. I mentioned South African-based Instagrammer James Norbury a few times last year as he was creating some good content based around Lord of the Rings…it must have gone well as he came back this year and was back into it (update: I had a look, he gained hundreds of thousands of followers from the LOTR content last year it seemed). But he took things a bit far last week with an Instagram reel posted from Earnslaw Burn Track titled ‘Helicopter Evacuation’.

Lots of people weren’t impressed with the use of drone footage (illegal to fly drones) in his reel, and he downplayed the real challenges of the hike. He reckons the drone footage isn’t his, but he came to his senses (I think) and took down the reel. The title of the reel was horrible…there was no evacuation, his girlfriend just opted to take a ride out on a chopper…though he never mentioned how much that cost. Was it preplanned? Anyway, it was great to see the outdoor community coming together.

Near Miss Survey. If you’ve had a near miss on the trails, you might want to help out Adventure Voice (part of Mountain Safety Council) by filling out this survey. It’ll help them improve messaging, identify risk areas and support our outdoor community to make safer decisions.

Cool McIntosh Hut Video. Miranda is a popular American backpacking hiking YouTuber who makes lots of fun content. Earlier in the year, she made a trip to NZ. The first video of their trip takes them to McIntosh Hut (near Glenorchy) on a beautiful day, before the rain set in and they had to tackle the horredous decent along the fenceline back towards Glenorchy. It’s bad enough on a good day, let alone with lots of rain :/

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

It was a local weekend here with snow arriving in the mountains and staying around for a few days…camping sounds less fun.

See the gear I use in Wilderness Mag.

If you’ve got a copy of the Wilderness Magazine’s May edition (or read it on your library app or here on the website), you’ll see a photo of me and the gear I carry (page 66).

It was quite a fun process getting together all the stuff I regularly use and seeing it all laid out. My usual process is to stuff things in one at a time in between distractions. I’ll write up a post about that at some point for Chur New Zealand as well.

Quiz Answer → Resistance to heat flow

Have a great week, hike it up.

If anyone has questions about the gear I use or anything (I’m far from an expert), 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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