Joe and Sheryl have "left the building".

It was a joy to host these two American hikers, owners of Zpacks - ultralight gear manufactures who are walking NZ's longest trail - Te Araroa. They left Cape Reinga three weeks ago and arrived here in Auckland two nights ago.

The trail goes right past our house so they once again dropped in for a welcomed hot shower, bed and "real" food.

They expect to arrive at the Bluff around the 2nd week of March 2013.

Here are a couple of photos taken outside our house on Milford Beach as they hit the trail heading South.

Joe Valesko (ZPacks) Arrives to Start Te Araroa Trail

Exciting week!

I picked up Joe and Sheryl Valesko (Zpacks) yesterday. They flew into Auckland non-stop from their home in Palm Bay Florida. I became their first "Trail Angel" as they prepared to start their through hike of the Te Araroa trail (The length of NZ). Checkout www.teararoa.org.nz  We spent the day getting DOC annual Hut Passes, food, bank and bus connections North to CapeReinga.

It was an early Christmas for me as Joe delivered my new Hexamid Tarp. I sold my original and have opted for a full screen with the heavier (Jez, did I use "H" word :-)  .75oz cuben, teamed with the cuben bath tub floor. All use include tie outs - 470gms

Other goodies included:

Cuben fiber shorts to go with my cuben fiber rain jacket. I decided to get Joe to cut the legs off his pants design to make them into shorts that I can slip over my normal ones, or use them over my underwear only if it looks like a rain soaked day.  I am looking forward to testing this option in Fiordland at Chrismas.

The Blast cuben fiber food bag - mouse and waterproof!

A new full length NeoAir Xlight - OK it's almost double the weight of my current short Kooka Bay pad, but after 40 plus years of "roughing" it I am going the extra 150gms for great R factor, full length (no more cold feet) and being able to attach my Mont Bell pillow on top of mat. To this end Joe gave me a great idea. He bought down some velcro strips sewn onto cuben fiber tape. I stuck the female side on the mat and male on the pillow - it works great. I have attached a couple of pictures below.

I dropped Joe and Sheryl off at the bus depot 7am this morning and they took off for Kaitaia intending to hitch to the cape to start NZ's long trail later today. The trail passes my house in Milford, so I will have a BBQ, Beer, bed and hot shower waiting for them in a couple of weeks as they pass through. 

Deflated mat and pillow showing velcro positions

Deflated mat and pillow showing velcro positions

Finished position

Finished position

         

Shoes and Sunglassess

Another alert. High Beam the NZ importer for Inov8 trail shoe (The best!) have got some good specials on Roclites. The Roclite 319 is my "go to" shoe and you can pick this up for $99 - sensational buy. Go to their "specials" page. Also check out their bullet proof Numa sunglasses, also on special ($99). These glasses are great for tramping, light and tough.

Walking Poles

Just a quick heads up to my NZ subscribers. Kathmandu has the Fizan Compact lightweight walking poles on sale right now. Great poles and cheap! About $50 each. See a previous blog. Also I got their Tropic lightweight sleeping bag to use when travelling overnight in our club bus, $48, bargain plus!

Camp Shoes

Have I stumbled on a winner here?

Many lightweight hikers dispense with camp shoes. I find after a hard day in my Innov8s, and a bath in the river, I don't want to climb back into my often damp and certainly sweaty hiking shoes, prefering the protection of my toe socks (warmth and mozzie protection) coupled with Teva thongs (177g).

But check out zemgear.com these "barefoot" running shoes could be all the go and at 124g!

I am ordering the Zen 360 split toe style, going one size up so if it's a cold evening (common in NZ backcountry) even in summer, I can still wear my toe socks.

Check out their site. I am interested in your thoughts.

Rain Jackets

Most followers of this blog will know about my latest rain wear - Joe Valesko's cuben fire rain jacket from Zpacks.
For those wanting to widen their research the Haglofs (Sweden) LIM Jacket is getting a lot of buzz from the light weight community.  Weighing in at 300g, it gets the big nod for waterproofness and breathabilty as well as the hood shape.
There is a great review at http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/reviews/display_reviews?forum_thread_id=25074&cat=Clothing%20-%20Raingear&cid=46

Sleep Pad

Following on from my previous post re air mattress research, I have really "zoned in" on Thermarest Neo XLite.

I currently use Kooka Bay (186g) but this guy has disappeared off the planet. Pity, he was on to a good thing! If I was (or had to) replace I would go for the small Neo Xlite - $US129.

It's 119cm long, 51cm wide and 6,5cm deep. It weighs in at 230g.

I like the internal reflective lining giving it a good r factor for an air mat at 3.2.

Check it out at http://cascadedesigns.com/therm-a-rest/mattresses/fast-and-light/neoair-xlite/product

Or see later post at http://lightweighttramping.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/exciting-week-i-picked-up-joe-and.html