At 2885m (9,645 feet), Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku is the highest New Zealand peak outside the Southern Alps and is a popular three-day hike for experienced groups with good navigational skills.
Tappy, as the locals call it, was the springboard for legendary mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary’s climbing career that took him to be the first person to reach the summit of Mt Everest.
| Fast Pack Gear Info | Weight grams |
| Here is my gear list for a 3 day 2 night mission. I try to keep my pack to 6kgs before water so I can jog sections of the route and fast walk the rough and steep sections. | |
| Ultimate Direction 25L Fast Pack | 555 |
| Shoes I wear Salomon XA Pro 3D or the Salomon X Ultra 3 MID GTX boot in winter or very rough country | |
| Sleeping bag lightweight 550g | 550 |
| High end Waterproof jacket kathmandu xt-alopex-men-s-recco-gore-texr-jacket and Macpac alpine series over trousers | 655 |
| XT hooded alpha lined soft jacket | 402 |
| Woolen hat and gloves | 75 |
| Long top and bottom polypros | 280 |
| Spare socks | 100 |
| Merino long top | 180 |
| 2 600ml water bottles and 1L bladder | |
| Walking poles | |
| Sun hat, sun screen | 100 |
| Emergency bivi bag | 74 |
| First aid kit | 100 |
| PLB | 400 |
| Head lamp with spare batteries | 200 |
| Cell phone with view ranger and route loaded | 150 |
| GoPro usb Battery charger | 116 |
| Jet Boil, cooker and gas | 400 |
| Map compass | 10 |
| Food | |
| 10 scoops of tailwind per day 2 scoops 200 cals | 400 |
| Back country dehy meals, 2 muesli and yogurt, 2 dinners (Saturday night 2 serving size) | 530 |
| Back country smoothies 2 | 20 |
| Sesame seed snaps | 20 |
| 6 croissants with avocado and salami | 300 |
| Bag of crispy bacon | 50 |
| Cheese mini brie 5 | 100 |
| Chocolate bars 9 | 100 |
| Bag of choc milk 2 | 100 |
| Russin fudge | 30 |
| Ginger cubes | 30 |
| Total | 6027 |
Here is my gear for a winter trip
November 5 2016
Chris Martin runs a crazy event in the Aorangi’s called the Undulator, (Not for the Weak) it has 3 mean as climbs and was an amazing day in the sun.
At a TimeZoneOne event in our new Colombo St office I met one of our amazing clients Matthew Mark from Ronald McDonald House.
In chatting with Matthew I found out he was a keen outdoors man. After we chatted about a few past missions Matthew kindly offered to take me on the Goat Pass trail next time I was in town. (At this stage I didn’t know Matthew had placed 7th in the Coast to Coast, that is legend status!) In fact I didn’t find that out until we were an hour into the run.
I called Matthew before my next trip and he kindly made arrangements to pick me up at 5am and his daughter drove the car between the start and end points.
It was meant to start raining at 7am and was touch and go if the rivers would be too high but the rain held off and we got a magic day in beautiful country. We even got a see a Whoi (Blue Duck).
Thanks, I look forward to returning the favour in our hills!
1min Video highlights
Full video 5min
Mountain Adventures 