Gear list for Stewart island
Bellow I have put together a gear list of the things I carried on my trip around Stewart Island I also decided to review some of the new products I got from Kathmandu.
Tent
Waterproof jacket
Pack 75L and pack liner
Freeze-dried food
Solar light
Knife
x1 Merino shirts
x2 Top and bottom merino thermals
Cooker (I carry a solid fuel burner for trips over 15 days)
x2 GoPro Hero5 (filming my experiences is very important)
x3 Battery packs
x3 Solar panels for charging the battery packs
Satellite phone
Personal locator beacon
x1 Shorts and long pants
Boots and socks
Survival kit ( mine is huge i use it almost every day its more of a life kit.)
Pen and something to write in!
Roll mat
Pot and pan
Spoons
Dry bags for everything! (that means a dry bag for wet stuff too)
Sleeping bag and thermal liner
Lansan tent
A new tent! At first glance, it looked tiny but once inside it opens up! I could easily put all my gear inside and still had plenty of room for myself. I slept in this tent for about 30 days, for 19 of those, it was raining very hard the only thing I struggled with was when it was raining, and I was learning to put the tent up it filled with water, but that only happened once. After I had known how to put it up, it was so easy it only has two poles so your not fiddling around with lots of different things. It would take me about 2-3 minutes to put it up entirely. It’s incredibly lightweight for its size and stood up to the test when the wind picked up. I spent one night on the top of a mountain in 70knot wind with sideways hail and snow. All night I was terrified it was going to tear it apart, but it didn’t, I woke up dry and safe. I was damn impressed with this tent.
Flinders jacket
The most waterproof jacket I have ever owned. It’s not as heavy duty as some of the other ones I have used but it makes up for it in the design my favourite feature was how you could make the hood fit your head. There are several ways to make adjustments that make it a perfect fit. It stops almost all the water. The only time it didn’t keep me dry was when I fell in a river! When I chose the jacket, it stood out because it looked good. After trying it on I could tell it was going to be practical in almost any situation. It’s light, it’s strong, its pockets are all accessible with a pack on. It worked until I damaged the fabric when I was walking through scrub for days on end. This jacket isn’t designed to be rubbed against trees and rocks and pushed through the sharp windswept scrub. The jacket is great until and would definitely get another one, and I was very impressed with how waterproof it was.
Pathfinder sleeping bag
I chose this product because it was so light and packed down so small! Waterproof down is also a game changer. In summer situations it would be amazing. Unfortunately, I screwed up by choosing this bag as it was as good as winter when I was on Stewart Island.
The rating on it for comfort limit is five degrees, and I don’t think I had a night above three the whole time. Because of my own mistake, I don’t have lots of positive feedback from this sleeping bag, but it kept me alive, and I wasn’t shivering. Sure sleep was hard at times, but it is a highly well-designed bag. I’m looking forward to using it now that I’m back from the adventure and don’t have to deal with trying to use it on a subantarctic island. This product did exactly what it said it would do in the conditions I was in.
Ascent roll mat
Epic! Small and light and easy to fit in a bag. Keeps you off the ground and didn’t deflate at all. I defiantly wished I was carrying a long one because in some situations the short one just didn’t do the job. It’s nice to have a few small luxuries, and I recommend making those something to do with sleeping or eating.
Vardo Gridtech 75L pack
This was the smallest pack I have every carried on an expedition this big. Usually, I would take a 90L for anything over 15 days. Vardo is 75L it was a struggle to fit all my gear inside in the end by packing it correctly I got it all in. It had the perfect amount of stretch in the fabric to hold all the gear. I put that pack through harsh tests on this trip. It has been made very well and am amazed by its performance especially off track. There were at times I had to drag it using the handles that are built in. Out of all the seven packs, I have ever owned this is the first that didn’t give me blisters on my hips. The harness on the bag is fantastic, and it holds itself quite high on your back which I like. its perfect for carrying through thick bush. It doesn’t have any pockets other than two on the sides which makes it ideal for not catching on things. I can’t think of anything wrong with it.
Men’s down UL jacket
Definitely a big reason why no hunters shot me! Bold, bright and light! It was such a great jacket to have it packs down so small but doesn’t lose any functionality. On the coldest of days, I would wear it to bed along with all my other clothes. It’s a bit of a scary one to wear around a campfire though mine has a few small holes in it from getting a bit close and sparks melting holes in it! It kept me warm throughout the duration of my trip.
Men’s flinder pants
This was my first time wearing long pants on a trip I usually just wear thermals and shorts, but I knew that whatever my outer layers were they were going to get destroyed from the bush. The pants dried fast and didn’t stick to my skin when I was wet. There my kind of colour I’m not a fan of bright colours in the bush, I like to blend into my environment, and these made that real easy. The pants weren’t that good for off track wilderness exploration because as soon as I got into the gnarly scrub, they ripped. But the way they have been stitched together means even if they have a hole in them the hole won’t get ant bigger it’s just as big as you made it. It can’t grow.
Boots XT Fitzgerald NGX
This one was always one I was worried about! The boots are one of the most important parts about my expeditions they are my method of transport! At first glance, they are very well made they have been glued together properly. I think boots are so hard to choose these are waterproof, but that means when they get wet they stay wet. 25 days of wet feet was not fun, but the boots didn’t fall apart in fact after 30 days they were perfectly broken in! I’m frothing over my new boots.
Gallium merino top
Stoked with how the shirts held together! They are a bit more durable than your regular merino clothes I think it’s because of their thickness. Even after seven days without taking one of them off it didn’t stink… well, I couldn’t smell it anyway. The best thing about these shirts to me that separates them from anything else you can buy for hiking is that from your armpits to your hips there is no seems and that stops any chance of getting chafing. Let’s be honest blisters and chafing are the worse things when hiking.
Kangsar shirt
Hands down new favourite top! Quickest drying shirt I have ever owned. One bad thing. Whatever the fabric is made of it stains easy, and it doesn’t matter how manny times you wash it if you don’t have soap it still looks filthy. This is amazing , my wild girl at home gets annoyed at me because even now that I’m back from the expedition I still haven’t stopped wearing it.
LuminAID solar light
This bit of kit was so cool! No batteries no problem, I was so impressed with this as it never ran out in the 30 days I was on my expedition. I will always carry one of these from now on.its a total game changer for camp lighting because all it needs is sunlight!