5. Do you really need a stuff sack? 

I’ve always stuffed my down jacket into a stuff sack because it has one and that’s what you do. Until, at our day spa camp on the Tasman moraine my sleeping bag stuff sack ripped, so I used my jacket bag for my sleeping bag instead. I then used various parts of the damaged stuff sack to repair other gear items that were showing signs of wear. This included the drawstring to my hat to keep it on in the wind. It turns out my down jacket does just fine without a stuff sack and fits better in odd corners of my pack. Also, I saved faff time by not having to restuff it each morning.

6. Sew your Buff to your hat

I am and will always be a ‘shorts on glacier girl’ but in high mountain snow and glacier travel, the more your skin is covered the better. Just before the section with the most glaciers and snow travel, I sat down and, with a few sewing items from my survival kit, I sewed my Buff neck gaiter into my hat so that it covered the back of my neck, protecting it from the sun.        I left the top end of the buff open, so in cold conditions I could also wear the buff around my neck with the hat on.

7. Waterproof pants suck

I’ve never liked the cold, plastic feeling of waterproof pants against my bare legs, but if I put long johns on I tend to overheat. I balance this carefully and often choose to get my lower half wet. But in the wet weather and snow at the start of the trip, waterproof pants were not optional. I basically lived in them for a week, and inevitably they got torn. I patched them with duct tape (I keep some wrapped around a hiking pole) and thought that would hold. However, the weather did not improve and when the pants disintegrated a second time I admitted defeat. I messaged my contacts for a replacement pair to be dropped at Arthur’s Pass and, incredibly, two pairs showed up! For this trip, maybe some more durable pants would have been a better call. Ironically, after Arthur’s Pass, I didn’t need them again.

8. Good tramping shorts are invaluable

I lived in one pair of Macpac shorts for this entire adventure. Surprisingly, a good pair of tramping shorts can be hard to find. Now that I’m looking for a new pair, here is what I think makes them great:

1. Navy blue: I don’t know why, but all the good ones have been.

2. Elastic waistband: slip on easily, no zip to break, no pressure points under a heavy pack’s hip belt. The wider the waistband, the better.

3. No seam between the legs: this is key to avoiding chafe. My theory is that chafing always happens once the shorts are wet and are at that stage of drying when they stick slightly to your legs. Having a seam there seems to be just enough of a catalyst to start this off, and once it’s started, it won’t stop.

4. Soft and quick-drying fabric.

9. Repair it yourself

This is an ode to my Cactus Duper gaiters that, for some reason, Cactus has ceased to make. These are my best-loved gaiters, probably one of my favourite items of tramping gear. I love the style with front padding that protects the shins and means the gaiters stay up on their own without needing to be tight around your calves – important for breathability. I wore my last pair into the ground during this adventure, and no one is willing to repair them. So I have. I don’t own a sewing machine or have access to one that’ll sew canvas. But a friend put me onto a certain type of building tape that has been perfect. I’ve been innovative before with gear repair. I currently own a tent that I laboriously repaired in my study breaks while at university after a repairer told me all hope was lost.

10. What on earth are you eating?

On the first day of my trip I couldn’t make it through a single dehy meal at dinner. At Dart Hut I ended up giving away chocolate, a box of crackers and half a packet of Gingernuts to some excited trampers, and still couldn’t eat all the food I was carrying. By the end of the trip I was eating everything and anything, including all hut food and, at one point, cold-soaked pasta dipped in sugar. On my final stage, I had to double my rations and eat two dinners a night – at times two 800 calorie meals.

I had budgeted for the energy I was burning on a daily basis but hadn’t thought to take into account how my metabolism would change on an adventure like this. Next time I’ll start with    rations closer to what I eat on a 2–7-day trip for the first few weeks and ramp these up each week. I can carry more food at the end of the trip when I can manage the extra weight and need to eat more.

A typical day would start with a homemade smoothie mix (oats, berries, seeds and protein powder) or a Real Meals Bircher muesli (my favourite). Snacks throughout the day were lollies, chocolate, more protein powder, electrolytes, nuts, dehydrated yoghurt (another favourite), dried fruit and some sort of carbohydrates like corn chips. I did carry some muesli bars, but I don’t particularly enjoy eating those, even when ravenous. Dinners were a mix of Radix Meals for their nutritional balance and high calories, some Real Meals for their authenticity to actual meals and flavours, and some home-dehydrated meals – mostly dahl – because dehy is expensive and I like to use my dehydrator.