Te Araroa specifics

Well, on top, i carry the following, without exception. One polyester baselayer, one wind fleece for early starts, drizzly or windy conditions on the tops. One short goretex jacket, primarily used for wind protection above the snowline. Generally i prefer to get wet, and keep moving. For the hut one merino baselayer, one down jacket. Those 5 items, will cover everything the tat will ever throw at you.

Cheers Zone. That's not too far from what I have in mind. And I too prefer to get wet and just keep going. When I went for my 100km trail ride the other day, in the bucketing rain, I passed a couple of groups of cyclists wearing jackets, hoods cinched in etc. They were staring at me; wearing just mountain biking shorts and a sleeveless Kathmandu muscle shirt (because it's comfortable; it ain't because I'm buff)! Looking at sleep systems, what I'd really like to see is a sleeping pad/quilt all in one design. Now, that would be fantastic! Can you imagine? The benefit of saving weight by having a quilt, your mat wouldn't slide around underneath you, and you wouldn't have to worry about drafts, or warm air escaping you. Throw in a couple of zipped or velcroed vents, and you could still regulate your temp similar to a traditional quilt. Anyway, I'm no engineer, so just pipe-dreaming here....

Solo, tent/sleeping gear is a weight problem, that id be inclined to analyse per sector. In the SI, and parts of the NI, the huts will be close enough apart, to go with a fly, and a sawn off closed cell foam, really just to cover the odd gap, full hut, plus contingencys. For the other sectors, north of the NI etc, take the tent and thermarest. Cant see a way around that. 2kgs maybe. Sucks but what are you gona do? Weight is an escalating problem, the more you take, the more you need to take. But for such a long period of sustained walking, basic comfort, eg privacy, a decent nights sleep, i should think will be kind of up there in terms of trip priorities.

Hey Kreig - bit surprised to see you intend wearing gaiters, what with your sweating etc. I also sweat and HATE wearing gaiters because of that. Only wear them in snow. Have never been stopped by spaniards (speargrass) yet but am intending to do a route with reputably bad spaniards and will definitely take the gaiters just in case. I also cannot stand wearing over-trousers (again, except in driving snow) and prefer to wear shorts and polyprop leggings in all other situations. Mind you, these days never seem to get into those situations as old age suggests staying home is a preferable option to fighting the elements! lol Like geeves I use a low rated sleeping bag almost always with the zips a bit undone. Just pile on some clothes if it gets too cold.. One big advantage is its light weight. My down jacket is the best thing since sliced bread! Used to lug around jerseys, swannies etc, and later, fleeces. Now I carry a hunter's smock type light weight fleece and a down jacket. I have never actually tramped in the jacket as it is SO toasty I doubt I would survive long but would be par-boiled in a short time! HAs anyone tried the new down jackets, with water repellant down, yet?

Relating to the Bennington/Jackson story above (and being local I recall the storm well - it was an exceptionally bad few days and they were very unlucky with the weather) - but it does hammer home the point that once you stop moving the body can start chilling very quickly. I was working in a pumping station some years back on a cold winters day (the one half-way up Haywards Hill) sitting at a desk programming the automation for the site. Started about 9am. The weather outside was grey and a bitter southerly was making it's usual way up the gully, but inside was of course relatively sheltered albeit with no heating. (The big pump motor cooling fans would have been moving the air about though.) But despite the fact I was wearing a full noise down jacket, full alpine balaclava, lots of thermal layers underneath, and two layers on my legs plus light gloves to keep my hands typing - around about 1 pm I was done in. The first obvious signs of hypothermia - foggy thinking and poor decision making - had set in. Had to knock off and go home early. Retired to bed chilled and exhausted. It wasn't until next morning that I recovered. Yet here is the interesting thing. A work-mate pottering around at the same time doing some light mechanical work was completely unaffected. Just moving about made all the difference for him.

bivouac are pretty fail safe for any gear you want to be of high quality, torpedo 7 sell a broader range in quality, so buyer beware there. you can save a bit buying clothes overseas if you know what you are getting gearbuyer.com but need a mail forwarding companly like shipito.com to get around export embargoes i've saved massive amounts of money buying overseas top quality brands at discount i find campsaver.com has one of the best ranges

seddon camped out above the bushline in a severe storm, he would probably have been wet through, how many layers he had on would have been severely negated by the water,, he would have held more water in his clothes and strugged to stop the wind getting in. plus they may have been covered in snow. he should have made every attempt possible to get below the bushline, without proper shelter camping above the busline in the snow can result in a death sentence... like the two people who perished recently in a storm on mt taranaki, someone i know who has climbed everest and taranaki told me, in a storm he'd keep moving down rather than try and bivy on top even if it meant crawling, he'd consider staying at the top a death sentence...

layering http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/a/11292/Backpacking-Essentials

Seddon was a long time ago now but none of those 6 layers were suitable, neither were the 4 his partner was wearing. Its also very possible they put them on far too late. Being up there that day was a death sentence to anyone not in full antarctic gear . Even that might not of saved them. From where they were found there are very few quick ways to the bushline and if visibility was gone and with the extreme winds we know about options were pretty much down to one which was not being there in the first place. It is believed he survived the night because he was found 400 metres from his partner who was buried in snow.

A clever friend of mine rigged up a nylon gizmo that slid over the thermorest and zipped into the sleeping bag which was opened as a quilt. In actual fact it was over 2 thermorests and she and loverboy snuggled up under the single opened bag. This wouldn't work for me though as I would need to be able to bunch the sleeping bag close to minimise air in the bag. Her partner was a furnace and she was a polar bear so he warmed her nicely. I had a Macpac neve and it worked fine for me but I am one of those unusual people who wake to change position and log roll within the bag so the thermorest was always underneath me. Some people ended up with it on top of them instead. The modern bags are so light and warm with that 800 loftpower down that you don't need a bag with no feathers on the bottom these days. My lightest bag is too hot in the feet (the joys of menopause) so I have had the bottom converted to a drawstring opening so I can sleep with my feet out most of the night. I have a baffle covering over the wee hole created by the drawstring. I met a hunter with the commercial version of this idea and copied it thanks to Twin Needle.