GEAR: Te Araroa NZ vs US Trails(Appalachian, Pacific Crest)

Written By Jack Jones

This will be a quick rundown of gear I used while hiking the Te Araroa in New Zealand and how the trail and gear differs from popular US trails like the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails.

We started our hike on January 13th in Bluff, New Zealand, the southern terminus of the Te Araroa trail on the south island and hiked north, NOBO and finished March 16th. January through March is the time window to hike the south island in either direction and Oct-April is the time window to hike the north island. To give you some perspective, Bluff NZ is about the same latitude as Patagonia in South America. So the south island can get cold even in the midst of summer!

The Big 3

I like Hyperlite packs for their durability and the fact that Dyneema is waterproof. For a rugged trail like the Te Araroa in New Zealand you want a durable pack that is waterproof. It held up just fine through the hike and kept my things dry through torrential rainstorms. I still recommend keeping your vital items like sleeping bag and clothes inside an extra dry bag(I use a trash bag), but Dyneema will keep most of the water out, just a little will still get in through the seams and places where the pack was sewed.

Having 55L capacity was nice as we had some 6 and 7 day food carries. I don’t think I could have done the TA with a sub 40L pack.

Temperatures on the trail can vary widely hour by hour but my 30 degree quilt was more than enough for even the coldest nights. I think a 30 degree should work for the entire TA as long as you’re starting in spring/summer. Keep in mind as well that Katabatic is rated to 30 degrees for comfort while other brands are rated for survival, so this Katabatic bag is equivalent to a 20 degree Enlightened Equipment quilt.

We used the Tarp Tent Straospire Dyneema tent because Marvel had a new one, and it’s double walled. New Zealand has lots of rain and lots of moisture so a double walled tent can cut down on the condensation dripping on you. I’m glad we had a Dyneema tent but there were a few times where a freestanding tent would have served better. In the back-country New Zealand has a system of huts, which we often found were full, and there were several times where we just couldn’t find good spots to set up our tent, where a freestanding tent would have had a easier time finding a place to pitch. But the Dyneema held up great against the rain and weather and even kept us from flooding one night when a stream overran its banks and flooded our campsite with a few inches of water.

On wet mornings our friends who had non Dynmeea tents often had sopping wet rain flys to deal with, but we could just shake and wipe off the Dyneema and pack away a mostly dry tent and carry less water weight.

The Thermarest worked great and I had no complaints. Nothing special needed for sleeping mats in New Zealand.

Layers

The Finetrack Polygon UL jacket, weighs 180grams!

New Zealand’s weather is very fickle and in a day it can go from 50 degrees and freezing cold to 80 degrees and blazing hot when the sun comes out. As such the stand out piece of equipment for me was the Finetrack Polygon UL jacket.

It's incredibly versatile - unlike traditional down puffies which lose their warmth when wet these can get wet and maintain insulation. They're also way more breathable than regular down puffies so I can put it on in the morning when it's 40 degrees out and wear it comfortably for hours as the sun comes out without overheating.

I really loved this jacket and found I basically never put on my direct alpha hoody. I kept it around just because at about 6ozs it’s not much extra weight for the peace of mind to know that if I needed to I could double up the hoody and Polygon jacket for a ton of warmth, but 99% of the time I was just wearing the Polygon jacket.

With its breathability, pit zips, and main zipper I was able to wear just this layer to keep me warm in camp and then not make me overheat as I hiked and by the time I took it off it would be warm enough to keep it off, so there wasn’t a need to constantly take the jacket on and off. When day time temperatures aren’t dipping any lower than 40-45F I’ll be using only this jacket as a warm layer.

Rain Gear

I picked up a Yamatomichi rain jacket when I visited Tokyo. Like the Finetrack Polygon jacket the Yamatomichi is just superbly crafted and every little detail is thought through. The jacket held up great for me and I’ll continue to use it. My Enlightened Equipment Visp was just getting a bit old and worn out after doing the whole CYTC so I figured for a trail that is as rainy as New Zealand I should get a new rain jacket.

I didn’t arrive with rain pants but the cold rain in the first week of the trail quickly made me pick up a pair in Te Anu. Mac in a Sac is a New Zealand brand and it’s fairly decent price for what you get. These pants were durable and light, 180g and cost $80 NZ which is about $48 USD. I still have trouble finding a decent pair of durable and lightweight rain pants that aren’t super expensive.

Definitely pack both rain jacket and rain pants for New Zealand. The arctic winds that howl in with the storms can drop the temperature 30-40 degrees in a matter of minutes and your survival absolutely depends on having a waterproof layer to cover your entire body.

Everything Else

I started with some old Altra Olympus and tried a pair of Topos, made a video on comparing the two if you’re interested, but both shoes worked fine! I’d recommend trail runners, non gortex, you will be walking through rivers literally every single day so your shoes will just be wet all the time.

Camp Gear

Electronics

When I was in the research phase the internet made it seem like the TA was an entirely different beast than any of the US trails. I think this is largely overblown. The TA can be steep and difficult but you’re not facing anything there that you wouldn’t face on any of the trails in the US, and you don’t need a bunch of extra gear.

Kiwis are notorious for carrying gigantic 70L packs full of some really heavy gear and then scoffing at the ultralight people that come from the US and Europe for not having enough gear, but it’s really a fundamental misunderstanding of ultralight gear and not a reality of the weather on the ground.

The reality is that hiking in New Zealand in the summer you’ll face variable weather but nothing that normal backpacking gear won’t prepare you for. Make sure you have a sleep system that can handle 20-30 degree temps, a good set of rain gear, layers that can handle mild winter temperatures and then you’re good to go.

Don’t let the fearmongering online scare you into thinking you need to bring extra robust or heavy gear. A Te Araroa kit looks much like a kit you would bring onto the PCT or CDT in normal hiking season, or a kit you would bring on the Appalachian Trail in the shoulder seasons. Nothing extra is needed.

Route finding and compass skills are not necessary. Where the trail isn’t clearly marked you can figure out very easily using your GPS app and following the path that other people have tromped down.

This idea that New Zealand is so much more wild than other places is also overblown. New Zealand isn’t anymore remote than many parts of the PCT or CDT and you don’t need to take extra precautions that you wouldn’t be taking on any of the long trails in the US.

Jack Jones
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