Te Araroa Gear List Essentials
Te Araroa Trail is a 3,000 kilometre, long distance walking trail extending from the most northerly place on New Zealand’s North Island to the most southerly on the South Island.
In this article I share with you the gear that we took when hiking Te Araroa Trail along with the reasoning and context behind our decision making to better help you when making your own decisions while planning your walk of Te Araroa.
The article finishes with my reflections on what gear didn’t last the full distance, what was sent home, the substitutions and additions along the trail and what I’d change for next time.
The majority of hikers walk south bound which allows them to start a month earlier than those walking north bound. Andrew and I hiked Te Araroa Trail in the 2023 - 2024 season, leaving Cape Reinga on 2nd October and arriving at Stirling Point, Bluff one hundred and thirty three days later in mid February.
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How to get the most from this article
This is an extremely comprehensive Te Araroa Gear List containing a wealth of information. If you’re planning to walk Te Araroa and want to get the most benefit from this article, use the Contents List above to quickly navigate your way between sections. Once you’ve opened the Contents List, click any of the bullet points to jump straight to that topic.
Throughout the article, I’ve linked to further reading, products, services and directly to the daily blog relevant to that paragraph. Where it helps to add further context, I’ve included videos from the relevant day. As well, click any of the images as they will also take you directly to the relevant day.
Te Araroa Trail Location
Te Araroa Trail Location: From the comments and questions I received, it was apparent when sharing daily vlogs during our walk, that many people didn’t know where or even what Te Araroa Trail is. If you Google Te Araroa, you’ll find a town by that name on the most easterly cape of New Zealand, fast fact, Te Araroa Trail goes nowhere near Te Araroa town.
In fact, Te Araroa’s trailheads are Cape Reinga in the far north with a latitude of 34.5° and Stirling Point, Bluff in the far south with a latitude of 46.6°, representing over the course of the trail, a change of more than 12° latitude.
To give some context to those of you who are not yet familiar with this “little country in the middle of the Pacific Ocean”, if you were to overlay New Zealand on Western Europe, it’s a comparable distance from say Copenhagen in Denmark all the way to Montpellier in southern France with Stewart Island dipping it’s toes into the Mediterranean Sea.
New Zealand Overlay on Europe
The same comparison in the United States would have Cape Reinga up in New York and Bluff down in Florida with Stewart Island this time swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.
New Zealand Overlay on United States
For Australians, think about Stewart Island being in Bass Strait, Bluff being in Melbourne, New Zealand’s East Cape (and the town of Te Araroa) being in Byron Bay, and Cape Reinga located somewhere a little north of Roma in Queensland.
New Zealand Overlay On Australia
Te Araroa Trail Climate
Te Araroa Trail Climate: The reason I have included these comparisons is any decisions around what gear to take when through hiking Te Araroa have to be made with an appreciation of the extreme variability of the landscape you’ll traverse and the impact of climate on those landscapes.
Te Araroa Trail includes coastal beaches, plantation and native forested mountains, villages, towns and cities, marshland and swamps, a desert and volcanoes, alpine mountains and high passes and many many river valleys where you’ll be basically walking in the river.
Te Araroa Trail is unmatched for diversity and is often described as one of the more challenging long distance walking trails or through hikes in the world.
Elevation ranges from sea level as you walk the many beaches in Northland, Auckland, Whanganui-Manawatu, Wellington, Marlborough and Southland. High points and highlights include the 1,731 metre high Mount Rintoul in the Richmond Range, the 1,870 metre Waiau Pass in Nelson Lakes, 1,886 metres on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and all the way up to the highest as you cross over Canterbury’s Stag Saddle, a lofty 1,925 metres above sea level.
Te Araroa Stag Saddle - Highest Point on Te Araroa at 1,925 metres above sea level
New Zealand’s climate is complex and you’ll likely encounter warm subtropical conditions in the far north, possibly severe alpine conditions in the mountainous areas and cool temperatures in the far south. As an island, it’s not unusual to get what feels like four seasons in one day!
The day we walked from Twizel to Ohau in Canterbury, the temperatures reached 30° and we were sweltering. Whereas the next day, we walked over the Ohau Saddle and were caught by a sudden change in weather bringing with it snow.
It very quickly became dangerous and we were lucky to find an abandoned hut in which to shelter overnight. Incidentally, this was in late January and in total, we experienced snow three times in January alone.
Most areas of New Zealand receive between 600 and 1,600 millimetres of rainfall spread throughout the year with summer being dryer. Mean annual temperatures range from ten degrees celsius in the south to sixteen degrees celsius in the north of New Zealand and there’s not a huge variation between summer and winter.
The coldest month is July and the warmer months are January and February. Niwa’s forecasting statistics are averages accumulated over many years so of course there’s going to be the highs and lows as we experienced with the unseasonal January snow.
Te Araroa is a summer hike, undertaken when the harshest weather has hopefully passed and the snow melt has occurred thereby decreasing the depth and ferocity of the rivers. If you want to attempt it in winter, add alpine experience to your list of essential skills and an ice axe plus crampons to your kit. On second thoughts, don’t even contemplate it as it’s way too dangerous.
Te Araroa Gear Challenge
Te Araroa Gear Challenge: Within this backdrop lies the challenge for a prospective Te Araroa through hiker, how can you possibly prepare, pack and carry the appropriate gear for such varied conditions and climates?
The night before we left our home in the South Waikato, there was a fire burning merrily in the grate as the frost settled icily on the roof. Two nights later, we were camped in a tiny ultra light tent on Ninety Mile Beach, it was a rapid transition from home comforts to hobo going sobo and we had to adapt immediately.
As with many couples, Andrew and I experience the temperature differently and there’s no prizes for guessing which one of us feels the cold. They say you pack your fears and within a week of starting, I gave in to mine and purchased a cheap, lightweight merino top when we reached Northland’s Kaitaia.
Te Araroa Gear Compromise
Te Araroa Gear Compromise: Choosing your gear for Te Araroa Trail and packing it is unlike packing for a weekend or other short hike where ahead of time, you have the luxury of being able to check the weather and prepare accordingly. When hiking for months on end, you’ll have no idea what weather lays ahead. In spite of the lack of certainty, you still have to try to anticipate and be prepared for all possible scenarios and this is where compromise comes in.
We are not particularly light nor ultra light hikers however we kept our gear as light as we possibly could. It simply makes sense that the less you carry, the easier the experience and less impact on your body.
Lightweight Hiking and Ultralight Hiking Defined
Lightweight Hiking and Ultralight Hiking Defined: Lightweight hiking is when your base weight is less than nine kilograms, the base weight being the total weight of your entire kit but excluding your consumables such as food, water and fuel.
Ultra light hiking is when your base weight is less than four or five kilograms. As much as I’d love to fit into the light or ultralight categories, I couldn’t without sacrificing performance or safety.
As you research other hikers’ gear lists, make sure to check out where they hike to see if their hike and gear decisions will have any relevance to your anticipated Te Araroa experience. Most gear lists suited to trails from other countries won’t be directly transferable though can be a good starting place and of interest for many other reasons.
It’s also hard to compare hikers experiences from different seasons. Before we left home, I talked with Liam who had completed Te Araroa a couple of years earlier. He said that they’d only had three days of rain the entire through hike whereas I felt, we were lucky to get three days of sun! Okay, so that is an exaggeration but if you’ve watched my daily vlogs, you’ll have noticed my pink rain jacket featured a lot.
Another consideration is that the previously mentioned light and ultralight weights are entirely arbitrary and do not take into account, the size, weight and strength of the hiker. Andrew is twenty centimetres taller than me, twenty five kilos heavier and way stronger and quicker. Not once did I consider we swap packs though I did suggest I carry some of his items when he had twisted his ankle.
In addition, the weight of everything is going to change when it’s wet. Many times we packed away a wet tent and footprint, (so much for having an ultralight tent), though we were usually able to take them out at some stage during the day to dry them off. Oh, and if your hiking clothes are still wet in the morning, you just put them back on and get on with it.
Horowhenua Lookout, Tararua Range in the rain, not a thing to be seen
Document and Weigh Your Proposed Te Araroa Gear
Document and Weigh Your Proposed Te Araroa Gear: As you create your list and gather your gear for hiking Te Araroa, document and weigh everything as the process will force you to give more consideration to your choices.
Look for items that can be multi functional, for example, dental floss sits in both my toiletries and repair lists and on trail, we used it for both with Andrew doing some running repairs when a seam on his shorts failed.
Assess your Te Araroa Trail Needs versus Wants
Assess your Te Araroa Trail Needs versus Wants
Work out your needs versus your wants, I love to read and rather than a separate device, I use the Kindle App on my phone to store my ebooks. I didn’t need a paper book, but that didn’t stop me several times from picking up a book or magazine (thank you Wilderness Magazine) left in a hut, carrying it for several days before leaving it in another hut for the next hiker. I also didn’t need Whittaker’s Fruit and Nut Chocolate, but then again…
You may already have some of your gear from earlier trips and it makes sense to simply adapt them to this trip. Hiking Te Araroa is not a cheap activity so any savings you can make will be useful.
Whittakers Chocolate remains our trail favourite!
Pack and Repack your Te Araroa Gear
Pack and Repack your Te Araroa Gear: When preparing for a big adventure, I like to spread everything out on a spare bed so I can see it clearly, adding and removing items as I refine my kit. It’s exciting to see all the gear spread out but it’s important to also pack and repack your backpack to make sure it’ll all fit in there somehow, plus your food, plus your water, plus your fuel.
Once you’ve refined your choices, go for a walk with your backpack fully loaded, go out for a day, test yourself against the weight and reassess your needs versus your wants, then come home and get rid of some stuff. Do this in all weathers and at all times of the day as the weight and your tolerance will change depending on the conditions. Not only will your pack get wet and heavier in the rain but you will also hopefully by now be wearing your wet weather clothes.
Before starting Te Araroa; going through my Te Araroa Trail checklist again
Essential Te Araroa Gear List
Essential Te Araroa Gear List: I have categorised my Te Araroa Gear List as follows;
main gear and sleeping system
food and water
clothing worn
clothing packed (hiking)
clothing packed (camp and sleeping)
electronics
safety
toiletries
hygiene
first aid
repairs
personal items
These are the items I left home with when walking the 3,000 kilometre Te Araroa Trail in the summer of 2023 and 2024. I’ve added some comments to provide further context to my choices.
We are all different and there’s no right or wrong when it comes to choosing what to take, use my list as a guide or prompt, add items to it or take items off it as you see fit. For example, I’m a full time content creator and am working the whole time I’m hiking. For this reason, my electronics list is likely to have more items than most people require. After reviewing my list, if you’ve any questions head over here to ask them.
Te Araroa Trail - Main Gear And Sleeping System
Te Araroa Trail - Main Gear And Sleeping System: Your pack, shelter and sleeping bag are referred to by hikers as the big three. Big in weight, expense and importance. Before going to the extremes of cutting labels of your clothes (yes, I did) and chopping the handle off your toothbrush (don’t be silly, I just bought a child’s one) see what weight saving gains you can get right here with your big three.
My sleeping bag is not the lightest however, like most of my gear, I already had it and was not prepared to go to the expense of replacing it. It also has a temperature limit of minus ten degrees celsius, and before leaving knowing how I feel the cold, there was no way I’d give that up and in practice was so glad I didn’t.
I like to use a silk liner in my sleeping bag as it adds warmth and can be easily washed and saves your expensive sleeping bag from exposure to your un-showered hiker body. In an attempt to keep warm in the tent at night, I used an insulated inflatable pad which of course adds a little more weight when compared to an uninsulated pad.
Matahiwi: preparing the tent for the night
Andrew started with a well worn backpack and by Wellington, a mere 1,700 kilometres into the trip, had had enough of the lack of support. We went shopping and both gave serious thought to buying ultralight packs however were fortunate to be served in the store by someone who’d walked Te Araroa one and a half times.
They fully understood the challenges still to come in the South Island, pointing out that once the weight of your fully kitted backpack, including consumables, is more than about twelve kilos, an ultralight backpack will not provide enough support.
Given the distance between food resupplies, we were going to be carrying way too much for an ultralight backpack to be comfortable. Andrew typically carried about eighteen kilograms and I carried about fifteen, this increased on the long sections.
As I already had all my kit one small change I made was to swap out a heavier pack liner for a simple black bin bag. Talking of multi purpose, a large bin bag makes a great addition to your wet weather gear and when worn under your jacket, is another layer of warmth. There were several occasions when I felt it was necessary to do this this including at the Blue Lake and crossing the Ohau Saddle.
On my YouTube and other Social Media Channels, you’ll see I often hike in the rain, this is not intentional but is the reality of hiking in New Zealand, again, there’s that four seasons in one day.
When hiking Te Araroa, there’s also many unbridged rivers to be crossed and potential for an unplanned dunking. For this reason, I go to great lengths to ensure my kit stays dry inside my pack.
If it’s raining, I use a pack cover on the outside of my pack, of course it doesn’t one hundred percent stop the pack getting wet but it does make a credible difference and is something I’ll always carry when hiking in New Zealand.
The big black bin bag adds another layer of protection and it goes in the main compartment of my backpack. My packed clothes and sleeping bag then go in compression bags providing the final layer of protection.
Te Araroa Trail - Main Gear And Sleeping System List
Te Araroa Trail - Main Gear And Sleeping System List
Tent - Fly, Bag, Footprint, Stakes, Poles, Cord, Patch
Big Black Bin Bag - pack liner
Inflatable Pad
Silk Liner
Compression Bags
Zip Lock Bags
Te Araroa Trail - Food And Water System
Te Araroa Trail - Food And Water System: When we started walking Te Araroa Trail in October, the weather remained obstinately cold. At this time, Andrew and I noticed a small number of hikers were what’s referred to as “cold soakers” meaning they did not carry a stove but instead, chose to soak or rehydrate and eat all their meals cold.
We saw many delightful fusions such as instant potato mash, ramen noodles and peanut butter being mixed together with water in a grubby peanut butter jar then eaten as the main meal of the day. Keegan, I admire your tenacity to get to Bluff on that diet!
I love a hot cup of green tea wherever I am but particularly, at the end of a day’s cold and wet hiking. No matter how simple it is, I also love a warm meal and if it’s really cold, having warm food inside me helps me stay warm at night and sleep.
The physical and emotional comfort warm food and drink provides me, more than justifies the weight gain from carrying a stove and fuel canister.
Te Matawai Hut, Tararua Range
A month later on Mount Pirongia in the Waikato and with winter’s chilly breath still about, we then observed some of those original cold soakers had now converted over to the hot side and were carrying stoves.
As with all this gear, when it comes to your food system, there’s no right or wrong way and what may work in some circumstances may not work in others.
Assuming we’d encounter long hot days and potentially a drought, I took plenty of capacity for drinking water. Given the wet season, the reality was we were never short of water and became quite relaxed about starting the day with only about a litre. Andrew and I are more easy going than most about filtering our water and in fact, I filtered water only once or twice the whole hike. Saying that, we are very selective about our water source and this isn’t by any means a recommendation.
The FarOut App is very useful for current updates on water conditions ahead, as in confirming if there’s still fresh water in a hut tank or that the stream hasn’t become stagnant or run dry.
Given we each carried a pot, it may be considered a luxury to each also carry small collapsible bowls and cups with lids. This is where our wants overrode our needs.
When preparing to hike Te Araroa, we calculated we’d need abut seven hundred and fifty meals between us and in order to save cost, we made and dehydrated about two hundred meals for our resupply boxes. In the end and not counting snacks we had about eight hundred meals.
On trail, we found that by initially cold soaking our food in our bowls with the lids screwed on, it took much less fuel to “cook” once we got to camp. Same for soaking our porridge oats overnight, the lids stopped the dust and mice, though there’s some good teeth marks on the side of my bowl.
Speargrass Track, Nelson Lakes, An unexpected detour
When the weather was unpleasant, we also found that if we cold soaked our lunch meals, we were then able to shelter under a tree or ledge and without too much difficulty, eat a nutritious but cold lunch as opposed to snacking on bars. Those cold wet days could be really long and we needed the extra calories to remain warm and upbeat.
Te Araroa Trail - Food And Water System List
Te Araroa Trail - Food And Water System List
Stove - Stove, Pot, Fuel Canister, Foot
Cotton mesh kitchen bag (to carry stove system)
Lighter
Folding Knife
Spoon
Collapsible bowl with lid - 600ml
Collapsible cup with lid - 215ml
100 grams ISO fuel canister
2500 ml water bladder
950 ml water filter and pouch
750 ml water bottle
Food Bag
Cloth Wipes x1 (Chux)
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing (Worn)
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing (Worn): When on trail, a through hikers wardrobe will reflect that of a minimalist. There’s one compete outfit and it does for everything; relaxing at a hut or campsite, hiking and biking, town and shopping days, hanging out at the lake or beach, scrambling through a river in flood or over an alpine pass, we’ve got it sorted. Easy.
There’s no time wasted in the morning deciding what you’re going to wear or having to maintain
and organise an expensive wardrobe. If that works for genius like Einstein, Steve Jobs and Zuckerberg, it works for me.
Layering is fundamental to your clothing strategy with variations dependent on specific weather or environmental conditions that you’re likely to encounter along the way.
As there’s plenty of road walking, we wore hi-viz vests so we were highly visible to the vehicle drivers. You can buy these cheaply at most discount stores. We quickly realised that once you put a pack on, the back of your vest disappears so we took to dressing one pack with the vest. I would walk in front facing the oncoming traffic with my vest on, and Andrew behind, with his vest across his pack. The vests scrunched down to nothing and were easy to shove in a side pocket.
Your choice of footwear is without doubt one of the most critical decisions you’ll make when selecting your gear for walking the 3,000 kilometre Te Araroa Trail. It took us four and a half months to complete our Te Araroa walk, that’s an incredible length of time on your feet and you want to be comfortable.
Andrew and I wear trail runners and my preference is to combine them with merino toe socks. The trail runners I started with at Cape Reinga were not new, I’d recently walked in them for three hundred, backpacking kilometres and in all sorts of conditions. But not with soft winter feet, not on Ninety Mile Beach and not for four days back to back with fifteen kilos on my back.
As my swollen feet and toes became crushed by my shoes, the blisters started on day three followed by infections under my toe nails. I suffered excruciating pain that kept me awake at night and culminated in me losing half my nails.
In hindsight, as soon as we arrived at Northland’s Kaitaia, I should have gone straight to The Warehouse and replaced my original shoes with literally anything.
Instead, as I’m driven / have a high pain threshold / were invested in my choices / had an identical replacement pair waiting for me / am an idiot, I battled on before finally succumbing to the pain and the concern I was doing permanent damage to my toes.
After hundreds of kilometres and weeks of pain, a hitch hike detour off Te Araroa’s Trail saw us back in Whangarei with a visit to Accident and Emergency followed by a course of antibiotics and some new shoes a whole size larger which had me finally “back on my feet”.
If you’ve the stomach for it, this has been graphically documented in my vlogs and in a Radio New Zealand interview. This injury was unexpected and humbling, it also took over one thousand kilometres for my feet to start feeling okay. That was round about the time we completed the Timber Trail in the central North Island and I think only then because we were on the bikes for two days allowing my feet time to recover.
New Zealand’s Ultra Violet Radiation Index is often high in most places and in summer very high in northern New Zealand and mountainous places. Niwa
Because of the sun, I chose to wear a long sleeve, button up shirt with a collar to protect my skin from sunburn. As well, I always wore a cap to help keep the sun and rain off my face. With a cool onshore breeze, I underestimated the heat of the sun and the backs of my winter legs did get very sunburnt on Ninety Mile Beach. For a white, freckly local, this was a silly oversight and one I didn’t repeat.
You may make some gear choices that in actual practice, don’t suit your Te Araroa purpose and that’s okay as there’s all the replacements you’ll need readily available in New Zealand. It may just take a bit of lateral thinking to get the replacements to you on trail or you to them, and then you back on trail.
We experienced this when Andrew’s latest shoes basically disintegrated after only a few hundred kilometres. Approaching Arthur’s Pass in Canterbury, we were still many hundreds of kilometres from the next trail town so chose to come off trail, and detour in and out of Christchurch.
Kiwi Hut, Harpers Pass Track: Andrew repairs his shoes with duct tape
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing (Worn) List
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing (Worn) List
Hi Viz Vest - worn on road sections
Sports Bra
Briefs
Top - Merino Base Long Sleeve
Hanky
Shirt
Cap
Wind Jersey
Shorts
Trail Shoes
Identification Bracelet
Hiking Poles
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing Packed (Hiking)
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing Packed (Hiking): These are the few items of clothes that I kept handy for when the weather conditions changed. The only item in this list that I didn’t end up wearing while hiking was the merino hooded jacket, preferring to keep it dry for camp.
Andrew and I debated long and hard about whether or not to include rain pants and in the end, left them off the list. In practice, whatever you wear, you’ll end up wet through as I’ve not yet found wet weather gear that copes with twelve hours exposure to New Zealand’s rain, nor the perspiration that forms as you carry a heavy backpack up a mountainside.
In retrospect, wearing rain pants and having that extra layer would have helped to keep us warm though I’m still not sure what I would exchange for them, weight for weight. Maybe that giant size Whittaker’s Chocolate bar, but you see my dilemma.
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing Packed (Hiking) List
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing Packed (Hiking) List
Merino Hooded Jacket
Rain Jacket
Beanie
Glove Liners
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing Packed (Camp And Sleeping)
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing Packed (Camp And Sleeping): There’s plenty of online comment within hiking communities about whether or not you should take a change of clothes when through hiking and there’s no doubt pros and cons for each.
Our reality was our night clothes gave us something to change into on arriving at the camp, hut, cabin or motel. We then wore them while we shopped or laundered our hiking clothes and yes, I have heard of the committed going down to the laundry with just their rain jackets on but have you seen the length of my pink jacket! Nor did we have a swimsuit to wear around camp as we also observed at the Twizel camp laundry one warm sunny afternoon.
Aside from those practicalities, our hiking clothes were often (mostly) wet and we were glad to get them off and hung up on a tree or the end of a bunk to try and get them dry before the morning. Even knowing we’d start the next day with a river crossing, Andrew and I went to great lengths to get our shoes and socks as dry as possible.
I found my slides worked best around camp, easy to slip on and off, it didn’t matter if they got wet and I could even wear socks with them, function comes before fashion on trail.
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing Packed (Camp And Sleeping) List
Te Araroa Trail - Clothing Packed (Camp And Sleeping) List
Camp shoes / slides
Skort
T-shirt
Leggings
Sports Bra
Briefs
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Electronics
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Electronics: Unless you’re a content creator, my electronics list will likely be more expansive than you need.
In the first month of hiking Te Araroa, many other hikers mailed stuff home, deeming it to be too heavy and not worth carrying a single step further. The most common thing I saw being packaged up were large cameras with associated lenses and accessories.
Not only are they extremely heavy, they’re fragile and not waterproof and as such, not suited to being carried the length of New Zealand in our inclement weather. My adventure camera is a GoPro Hero which I love as even with its small tripod, I can fit it into my shorts side pocket and its waterproof. It’s taken a fair beating over the years and is still going strong.
Most hikers will have at least a smart phone so they can access their Te Araroa Trail and FarOut Apps along with everyday communications. This video explains how to keep everything charged.
I found my headlamp to be very useful although we only ended up hiking twice at night and both times in Northland before daylight savings started. Once when waiting for the tide to change on Pakiri Beach and the next day, as the muddy Omaha Forest took way longer than expected. Other than that, I used my headlamp for midnight rambles out to the longdrop, pre dawn starts or late nights reading the Wilderness Magazine contraband
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Electronics List
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Electronics List
Camera with battery and spare battery, cables
Camera Dual battery charger, cables
Camera Tripod
Camera soft case bag
Memory card and adapter
Smart phone, cover, cables
Headphones
Power bank with solar panel and carabiner
Headlamp plus cables
Wall Charger plug - Dual port
Cables - 3 in 1
Te Araroa Trail - Safety Equipment and Considerations
Te Araroa Trail - Safety Equipment and Considerations: Whichever direction you choose to walk Te Araroa, within a week you will leave behind beautiful coastal beaches in exchange for glorious muddy forests.
Heading into Northland’s Ratea Forest, we sought shelter from the persistent rain at the Takahue Country Hall. By chance, Andrew picked up on a social media alert that there was a Search and Rescue Operation ahead of us.
Having skipped straight to the forest trailhead and within three hours of starting her Te Araroa Trail adventure, Yvonne who was hiking alone, had slipped in the mud and hurt herself. Fortunately, there was cell phone cover and long after dark, the Search and Rescue team were finally able to reach her. They assisted her out the following morning after what must have been a cold, wet and miserable night.
Two days later and with the rain once again persisting we heeded the Te Araroa Trail Notes and locals’ warnings and chose an alternative to the suggested Te Araroa route on the Omahuta-Puketi Forest Track which entailed walking down the Mangapukahukahu Gorge. As the day progressed, we became aware of a helicopter nearby and across the forest tops could see it hovering for some time and guessed it was approximately where the river gorge would be.
Later, we learned that Blair had hurt himself in the gorge and was rescued by the Northland Rescue helicopter team who winched him to safety and away to the Whangarei Hospital. Blair was walking alone and it was timely when John and Mel caught up to him as John knew how to activate Blair’s personal locator beacon.
I share these examples to create awareness that accidents can happen at any stage and anywhere. It’s easy to imagine getting into difficulty high on an alpine pass but equally, it can be as simply as slipping the wrong way on a muddy trail. The harm itself doesn’t have to be life threatening but the environment you find yourself stuck in may soon make the situation life threatening.
Whatever else you remove from my list, don’t remove the emergency device and don’t rely on cell phone coverage as often, it will be nonexistent. I carry both a personal locator beacon (PLB) and a satellite communicator, if one fails, I’ve still the other. The PLB for the location accuracy and the satellite communicator both for location and as a tracker.
If an accident happens, I want to give the Search and Rescue team every chance of finding me and I’ll hit the SOS button on every device in my possession. Having more than one alert also helps Search and Rescue know it’s not a false alarm. Spend the money, once in New Zealand you can either buy or lease these devices and your Mum will sleep better at night knowing you’re okay.
Fortuitously, both Yvonne and Blair recommenced their walk, Yvonne after a few days rest, Blair after about six weeks.
Te Araroa Trail - Safety Equipment List
Te Araroa Trail - Safety Equipment List
GPS Personal Locator beacon and cover
Smartphone
Whistle, lanyard
Emergency survival blanket
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Toiletries
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Toiletries: A bit like your clothing list, the toiletries you choose to take on your Te Araroa journey are likely to be minimalist when compared to what you may have at home.
At any time, my preference is to use shampoo and conditioner bars as it avoids yet another plastic bottle plus there’s not the burden of carrying extra liquids. Toilet paper is typically sold in bulk with the smallest packs having four rolls however it’s cheap enough to share the extras amongst your fellow hikers or pay it forward and leave a roll in a DOC toilet. Travel packs like these have mini supplies of the main toiletry items.
Although on trail you’ll often go a week or more without showering, be aware that it’s not acceptable to use soap and detergents in our streams and waterways.
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Toiletries List
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Toiletries List
Comb
Razors
Shampoo and conditioner bars
Toilet paper
Te Araroa Trail - Ultimate Hygiene
Te Araroa Trail - Ultimate Hygiene: While we talked earlier of the big three, we now talk of the three P’s. This time, representing pees, poos and periods.
Using the Leave No Trace (LNT) principles, a little planning is needed as there’s not always going to be a toilet available. When peeing and pooing outside, find a private spot well away from the trail and water sources. If you use toilet paper, tampons or other sanitary items, be prepared to pack them out in your toilet rubbish bag.
Before pooing, use your trowel to dig a cat hole, this is a hole deep enough to contain your poo while remaining within the soil’s organic layer. Once you’ve pooed, fill the hole back in with the dirt you first removed. If there’s no or limited organic matter such as in the Tongariro National Park or on the alpine tops, pack your poo out. The alternative to not buying your poo is it will take upwards of a year to decompose. With an estimated 2,000 Te Araroa through hikers per year, you can imagine how this could become an issue.
A wee or pee rag is a hanky sized cloth used as an alternative to toilet paper when weeing. Hung off your backpack, it soon drys. My trail towel is the size of a T-towel and one of the luxuries of staying in town, is finding accommodation that supplies one of those glorious, big white, fluffy towels.
Sunrise behind the Comyns Hut Longdrop
Te Araroa Trail - Ultimate Hygiene List
Te Araroa Trail - Ultimate Hygiene List
Wee/pee rag, lanyard
Leave No Trace Trowel
Microfibre towel and bag
Te Araroa Trail - First Aid / Supplements / Medicine
Te Araroa Trail - First Aid / Supplements / Medicine: Many moons ago (late 80’s), I backpacked for a few days with a Doctor in Java, Indonesia. Tom had recently finished his medical degree in London and was enjoying travel in South East Asia. His backpack was divided into two compartments, half being taken up by his first aid and medical supplies. I had sticky plasters and malaria tablets.
My point is, I’m not the one to advise on what first aid or medical supplies you’ll likely need. This is what I took and the only thing not used was the cleansing wipe. Given the toe infections, some all purpose antibiotics would also have helped and have now been added to my list.
For the first month every morning started with reapplying bandages to blisters
Te Araroa Trail - First Aid List
Te Araroa Trail - First Aid List
Nail scissors
Tweezers
Clippers
Needle / Safety Pin
Bandage crepe
Tape
Plasters
Cleansing Wipe
Te Araroa Trail - Supplements / Medicine List
Te Araroa Trail - Supplements / Medicine List
There’s vermin at many of the DOC huts and common practice is to hang your food bag from a wire to stop them stealing your food. I carry my multivitamins in a ziplock bag, separate to my food. There is now a mouse living at Browning Hut in the Richmond Ranges ready to take on the world having snuck in through multiple pack layers to find my vitamins.
Multi vitamin
Ibuprofen
Paracetamol
Antibiotic
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Repairs Kit
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Repairs Kit: Duct tape, so many uses, I love it! Fixing chewed tents where mice have come in, taping your feet, covering hot spots before they become full blown blisters, holding your shoes together as they disintegrate, fixing the end of your water pipe’s bite valve when you’ve punctured it on thorny Matagouri, patching ripped clothing, repairing tent poles and mending your backpack. In short, don’t leave home without it.
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Repairs Kit List
Te Araroa Trail - Essential Repairs Kit List
Duct tape
Needle / Safety pin
Dental floss
Te Araroa Trail - Key Personal Items
Te Araroa Trail - Key Personal Items: Andrew and I both left our wallets at home and simply used a ziplock bag for our money and cards. Cash is appreciated as a donation, koha or in payment for accommodation offered by Trail Angels. We did encounter a couple of businesses that didn’t accept cash. If you’re travelling from overseas, you’ll also have your passport.
Te Araroa Trail - Key Personal Items List
Te Araroa Trail - Key Personal Items List
Money
Driver’s License
Credit / Debit Card
Sunglasses
Prescription glasses
Glass case and cloth
Department of Conservation Hut Pass
Te Araroa Trail Pass
Te Araroa Trail - Comprehensive App List
Te Araroa Trail - Comprehensive App List
FarOut formerly GutHook
Te Araroa Trail App
Te Araroa Trail Notes and Maps App
NZ Topo 50 North Island
NZ Topo 50 South Island
Garmin Connect
Garmin Explore
New World Supermarket Loyalty Card
Woolworths Supermarket Loyalty Card
Air BnB
Shared Gear
Shared Gear
We took a two person ultralight tent, Andrew carried the tent, poles and pegs and I carried the footprint.
Telford Campsite, Southland. Lovely and sunny then it snowed overnight!
Replacements
Replacements: As we anticipated, there’s some items that wear out with constant trail use and over the course of the trail, we each replaced our shoes.
Sharon;
Palmerston North (worn from Wellington)
Andrew;
Palmerston North (worn from Wellington)
The same goes for socks and it’s recommended that you replace them about the same time you replace your shoes. I replaced my beanie in Wanaka, it felt a little unnecessary at the time but when the snow arrived, I was so glad I did. Andrew replaced his pack, shorts and hiking shirt in Wellington.
Substitutions
Substitutions: We were fortunate to be offered new shoes and mocs by Merrell in Queenstown so that was as far as my slides went.
Thanks Merrell! Love the new shoes and mocs
Additions
Additions: As I mentioned above, in Kaitaia I bought a cheap, blue merino long sleeve top. It wasn’t necessary, I was packing my fear of the cold.
I’m a very light sleeper and struggled with sleeping in the tent or huts so picked up ear plugs in Wellington. They’re the cheap disposable ones but even so, they made a difference. One day, I’d like to get the moulded ones as I hear they’re next level.
I twice bought cushioned inner soles, once in Palmerston North and once in Methvern. The Methvern ones were inadequate so although they were by then lacking in cushioning, I returned to my original pair.
Country and Me sent me some super new tights in Tekapo and it was such a treat to have something nice and new to wear, I carried them all the way to Bluff.
Sent Home
Sent Home: My tiny merino glove liners returned home once we reached Waitomo.
Creepers supplied several pairs of replacement socks in Palmerston North (I loved that pink pair and wore them to death!) and Radix Nutrition tucked in a lovely cotton Radix T-shirt when they sent their resupply box. I carried the extra gear over the Tararua Ranges then thought it best to send them home from Waikanae.
In that same package went my GoPro and associated accessories, as much as I love it, I found using two cameras was not practical when trying to keep up with my long legged hiking buddy.
We’d had a really difficult time in the Tararua Ranges, carrying extra food in anticipation of the distance and conditions, as well as the extras from Creepers and Radix, plus we each had a new set of shoes we were alternating to break in gradually. Any saving we could get with weight was going to help as we prepared for the long sections in the South Island.
Lost In Trail Transit
Lost In Trail Transit: My hanky disappeared on Ninety Mile Beach and my favourite beanie stayed in Tekapo, never to be seen again.
On Reflection
On Reflection: My philosophy when it comes to hiking is to hope for the best and plan for the worst, a bit like life really. Whether I’m hiking New Zealand’s 3,000 kilometre Te Araroa trail or one of our other famous Great Walks, this is my “go-to” gear list and includes all the essentials should something unexpected happen.
When planning to hike the 3,000 kilometres Te Araroa Trail, I chose to figure everything out for myself and it took me many months of late nights to research. Do yourself a favour, if you’ve any travel and trail related questions, Ask Me Anything, it’ll save you a ton of time.
It’s now been five months since Andrew and I completed our Te Araroa Trail journey and plenty of time to reflect on our gear choices. Aside from the shoes we started with, we’re both more than satisfied with our choices and if starting again, would take all the same gear.
Leave a Comment 😀
There’s no right or wrong when it comes to choosing gear for a hike. What’s your favourite piece of hiking gear or equipment? Is it an essential or a luxury, have I included it or left it out? Leave a comment below so that we can all learn from each other 😀
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Accommodation
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Timber Trail Shuttle and Bike Hire / Timber Trail Lodge
In the heart of the Timber Trail, Pureora, New Zealand. Package deals offered for the Timber Trail, shuttle, bike and lodge accommodation.
Clothing, Footwear and Accessories
Creepers - Toe Socks - Discount Code
Toe Socks for Men and Women - Multi-day hikes without blisters, hot spots and discomfort? Dry, low friction and ultrasoft. Use this link to receive 10% off your next purchase of Creepers Socks
Marmot - Hiking clothes and rainwear, tents and sleeping bags - Discount Code
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Merrell - Shoes, clothing and accessories - Discount Code
My Merrell Moab Flights are the only shoes that went the distance when hiking Te Araroa.
Since 1984, Merrell NZ have provided comfortable, resilient, and purpose-designed footwear to the feet of outdoor enthusiasts all over New Zealand. In 2008 they also introduced Merrell's technical apparel to New Zealand - offering garments which get people outside, whatever the weather.
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Emergency and SOS Communications
Remote Satellite Solutions, Lone Worker Services, Satellite device connections. SPOT, inReach, Delorme, GARMIN. Sales and Hires. TrackMe Pro+. TrackMe provided my data when hiking Te Araroa
Flights
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Food, Diet and Nutrition
Radix Nutrition - Discount Code
Ready made meals, breakfast and proteins, ideal for hiking
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Campers Pantry - Discount Code
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House and Pet Sitters
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Alps to Ocean Shuttles
Your Transport Solution to and from Te Araroa trail heads in Canterbury
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When asked by the Radio New Zealand Reporter what my favourite part of hiking the 3000km Te Araroa trail was I replied immediately, it is the people.