Here is my gear list of what I’m taking to New Zealand to hike the South Island section of Te Araroa in 2018. My base weight (total of that in the table below, minus what I’ll be wearing, and not including consumables – food/water/gas) is about 11.5kg. This is higher than I’d like it, but it’s what I’ve got. They say you carry your fears, and as you can probably tell from the table below, I’m scared of getting wet and cold. Given the characteristics of the trail I’ll be walking, I don’t think these fears are unfounded. But we’ll see.

Things like my daily contact lenses could be classed as consumables as the weight I’ll be carrying will decrease over time, but it’s 1-200g so I’m including them. Same goes for the paper maps.

It’s very similar to the gear I took for the Coast to Coast so my thoughts/rationale behind most of the items are in the C2C gear list. Some main changes:

• Proper sandals (Teva) for my alternative pair of shoes, rather than the floppy canvas shoes I took for C2C
• Leggings instead of a second pair of trousers
• A long sleeve shirt replacing the third t-shirt
• Warmer gloves
• Different socks – DarnTough
• Bigger first aid kit and repair kit to reflect the greater remoteness of this walk

Post edit: I wrote about how I got on with the gear here.