3 days off. Suggestions? Go!

From my understanding, they're really for those cold continental climates. They sound horribly clammy.

Na. Tried a traditional sleeping bag liner once. We used to get into fights overnight, and invariably I'd lose - wake to find myself suffocating with the thing twisting itself round my neck. I now take a cotton sheet or two when I'm working out of a hut. Given I almost never sleep with the sleeping bag zipped up - that suits more. Sometimes take one when tramping if there's a spare bit of room, but along with the pillow they're first to go when the pack looks a bit full.

I know what you mean about liners. I tried one once Luckily at home with a sensible adult on hand. Climbed into it Lay perfectly still while it did its best impression of an anaconda. After 10 minutes I couldnt move even if I wanted to and if the wife hadnt help then suffocation would of followed soon after. Theit main purpose is keeping the sleeping bag clean. I seriously considered a pair of pajamas for the same purpose.

ok, yea I haven't used them myself (VBL's) but I know what you mean about liners in general, I am the same. I know a few guys used them for Denali, @Honora and yea I heard they were good if you spents months in your bag. Clammy? Just wring it out in the morning :)

Liners, who ever dreamed them up sure did a great marketing campaign. Damned things, trying to get out of one in the middle of the night in a hurry is almost impossible. They seem to be able to strangulate all points north south east and west all at the same time. The only use for mine these days is to slip the neo lite mattress into tie it in a knot at one end to prevent it slipping off. Provides nice smooth surface reduces neo lite noise and allows me to use sleeping bag as a quilt. Far better than trying to sleep in one in a sleeping bag.

On the flipside, I find my liner excellent. Lightweight, keeps things cleaner, gives a bit of extra warmth, and if its really warm I can leave the sleeping bag in the pack and just use the liner I havent had issues with getting tangled in it and I move a fair bit in my sleep.

Like Size12 I've never had a problem with liners. Used them all my life. Use a silk one these days which is somewhat nicer than just the sleeping bag material. My sleeping bag is a rectangular which might help the non-tangling. Maybe a mummy bag would help create entanglement problems? One handy aspect is that I can put my head in the pillow holder part of the liner when the sandflies wake up, and breath through it - being silk this works.

some people can use them some cant. I think they are a good idea but for me they are just intent on murder

I hate being in a sleeping bag without a liner, for some reason I get all clammy and sweaty, even if I'm cold... (sounds gross? well it is). Doesn't happen if I have a liner. The liner doesn't get damp. No, I don't understand it either. I compensate by taking a lighter sleeping bag. The tangling is annoying sometimes, but for me not nearly as bad as being drenched in cold sweat!....

Well, I have some interesting stuff to report. Firstly, no - I didn't make it to Kirwin Hut..... Ok, here's how my 3 days off went..... Drove to Christchurch, stopped off and had fun playing in Cave Stream, which I had to walk through a thin layer of snow to get to. Fortunately, I work for a company where I'm in bloody cold water in a cave very regularly, so took my wetsuit. Still, the water level was up, and it was a mish getting through some parts, to the point I was sweating! Anyway, after I got changed, I headed down to Christchurch. Got a MOST-needed wheel alignment (although I reckon they did a crapola job), and while waiting for that bought a new food dehydrator and vacuum sealer at Briscoes. Went and took in Jurassic World 3D. Good movie, much better than Jurassic Park 2 and 3. With the anticipated excitement of much cheering and beering, I drove to Hanmer Springs to watch State of Origin. Actually, I usually drink Bundy Rum during Origin, but after ordering one at $9.80!! I switched to yeasty goodness. Anyway, I digress. Origin - greatest display of the greatest game on Earth! Don't try and dispute me. This is my thread, and if you fight me on this, I'll have you kicked off. :P (Not really, so don't get your panties in a wad fellas). Didn't quite have enough time to get to Reefton, and wasn't missing the game for anything. Well, let's just say that if anyone knows anything about the creme-de-la-creme of rugby league, then you'll understand when I say they need to kick that goose DCE out for game 3..... Anyway QLD lost, which sucked worse than a $10 vacuum cleaner. Slept in my car out the back of the pub. (Wasn't about to drive anywhere with a couple of jugs under my belt). Man do I love my bright tomato-red Kelty winter sleeping bag! That thing's friggin' AWESOME! In the morning I drove to Reefton, noting all the snow in Lewis Pass, but that it turned to rain as I got to town. There's no way there was going to be any snow up at Kirwan, and the iSite confirmed this. The lady had just hiked a portion of the St James a couple of days earlier, and said there was about a metre of snow at Ada Pass Hut. Sweet! That's where I was heading! So I grabbed a few things in town, then drove back to the start of the St James. However, by the time I'd gotten back there, the weather had really come in. I got out of the car and walked around for awhile, taking it all in. Now, bad weather doesn't normally put me off, but I got a REALLY bad feeling. And I've learnt the hard way not to ignore when I get that feeling. (At this stage, I had no idea just how bad the weather was going to get)! So my next thought was, "Hmmm.... I haven't been out around Twizel/Mt Cook way, I'll go check that out". Yeah, in hindsight, dumb idea, I know. At any rate, I drove back through Christchurch and down to Ashburton. It was snowing heavily and -2 degrees in Ashburton at 3pm! I enjoyed being out in the snow, but then was chatting to a guy about my plans to head SW, and of course, I'd already realised this was a bad idea (I currently have a 2-wheel drive uhhh!), and he confirmed it, saying Lindis Pass was shut and a 4wd was stuck up there. Dagnamit! I asked if there was anything to do in Ashburton, and with a great flourish he said.... "Not really". Rightio then. So I jumped back in the car and headed back to Christchurch, enjoying the driving snow/turned to driving sleet/turned to torrential rain the whole way. I bought a ticket to the Court Theatre (and for my West Aussie friends, this is an actual theatre, not like The Court you're all thinking of!), and saw an absolutely sensational two-man production called Niu Sila, which I learnt throughout the performance was written as if a Samoan kid having just arrived in NZ was saying "New Zealand". I HIGHLY recommend it! I did draw a few surreptitious looks going to the theatre in my hiking gear, but who cares? My money's just as good as theirs. Even had a good bit of a chat to the old biddies either side of me before the show kicked off. I also enjoyed a fantasmagorical meal from the Afghan. If you haven't been, you need to! You don't order what you want. The bloke looks at you and just gives you what you think you need. He'll ask if you want curry. Say yes! This is on top of the mountain of food he's already dishing out for you, but it's sensational! And quite mild, so great for everyone, even though I like a bit of a ring stinger when it comes to curry. I ordered takeaway as I had to get to the theatre, but this bloke gave me enough for two or three meals. And such brilliant food, for only $22! Anyway, after shoving some flavoursome Afghan into my pie hole, I put the rest in the car and made it to the show on time. Enjoyed a cheeky glass of Shiraz to boot. After the show finished, I thought, "What to do, what to do"? I hadn't been to Kaikoura, just driven past before. So back into the beast I jumped, and off I went. Drove past the turn off to Lewis Pass. "Road closed". Strewth. That meant the LONG way round to get back to Greymouth the next day..... Got to Kaikoura on the stroke of midnight. Not a pumpkin to be seen anywhere.... Found a dark parking spot near the whale watching place, and climbed into my big red tomato. Woke up earlyish the next morning, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Whilst my sleeping bag is ultra cosy, sleeping in the front passenger seat of a car for the second night in a row tends not to be..... So as I watched the sunrise, aware that nothing would be open I wondered what I could do. And it hit me: clean out my car. Now, I'm a guy who lives pretty clean these days, but basically my car is at times reminiscent of a feral 19 year old batchelor pad. So I took great delight in cranking the tunes, pulling ALL my gear out of the car (and I always keep a very good stash of actual emergency supplies in the car, as well all the stuff I'd brought for my sadly non-existent tramp), and discovered some rubbish in the process. Scratch that. I found a LOT of rubbish! 4 shopping bags full, to be exact. Now to be fair, there was the recently-devoured-for-breakfast left over Afghan food containers amongst it, but it doesn't take Einstein to figure out that even several containers don't need 4 shopping bags....! It was quite cathartic, actually. Singing and dancing as I cleaned away the crapola. And waving cheerily to the early morning walkers along the retaining wall who stared at me in just-saw-a-floppin'-alien wonder. :) Once I completed that, I figured I'd go and check out the Seal Colony. BRILLIANT!!! Spent AGES there! And apparently the pups aren't normally there, but they were that day. Something to do with the weather.... Got a tonne of photos, and went out onto the rock shelf and just stood mesmerised by the view; violently crashing waves, golden sunrise, snow-capped mountains peering through thick, long white clouds across the bay. Loved it! Did you know that in winter it's really hard to get crayfish in Kaikoura? I know, right?!! The floppin' town name MEANS crayfish! But apparently the prices offered by the Asian market are just too good. Even a place with the name "Cray" in it couldn't get any. Absurd! However, all was not lost! There's the fantasmagorical Kaikoura seafood van back out on the way to the seal colony. So I bought an aptly-named bottle of Sauv Blanc called "Storm Crossing", and plonked myself down at the van. I ordered the seafood platter. "That's for two people, unless you're REALLY hungry". Well hey, I can read the menu board as well as the next guy, even being from Straya.....! So of course, I ordered it. It came out on two big plates. I ate some of it then had a cheeky thought..... "Now Kreig, what's the most indulgent sandwich you've ever had"? This thought being triggered by something I'd seen online a few days prior about the Guinness World Record most expensive sandwhich. At 400 clams a pop, it was a grilled chicken and cheese sandwich coated in gold. No kidding. Look it up. Anyway, I couldn't remember the most indulgent sandwich *I'D* had, but I was pretty sure I was about to beat it anyway. So with the majority of my food still intact, I piled onto a sandwich: whitebait pattie paua (abalone for my Aussie friends) pattie crayfish pattie muscles scallops And it was exactly what you're probably thinking - "Oh my goodness gracious, When-Harry-Met-Sally YES"!!! Washed down with a delectable chilled glass of vino I finished (most) of my lunch, gave the remainder of the bottle to the lovely ladies working the food van, and went on my merry way..... Just as I was leaving Kaikoura, I saw a bloke hitch hiking. Now, I've done my fair share of it in my day, and don't mind giving someone a lift. Besides, I'd just cleaned out my car a few hours prior, so there was actually room!! This young German dude gratefully thumped his monstrosity of a backpack (seriously, how - and more to the point WHY?? - do these skinny-arsed European kids carry such stupid amounts of bulk and weight??) onto the back seat of my car before joyously jumping in the front. Not 200m down the road, there's another bloke begging for a lift. I toyed with him for a few moments, pretending to yes-no-yes-no myself as to whether I should pick him up to, but of course I did. Besides, the young German lad reckoned he was a solid cat. So this second guy was French. Nice enough guy, limited English. No problemo. I had a talkative German and tunes, so it was peaches. The Kraut was going to Blenheim, the Frog to Picton. Good as gold. Enjoyed the drive (last time was a mad rush at the break of dawn to get to the Picton ferry 10 years ago). Dropped Pierre or whatever his name was at the ferry terminal, filled up the car (again!!) then, with absolute exquisite relish, took to the curves and views of the Queen Charlotte Rd. Without once breaking the speed limit, I arrived in Havelock 30 minutes later. Oh yeah, there's at least ONE benefit to having a stupidly lowered stupid car! (Hey, it was cheap, mechanically sound, and I had a shattered leg, so beggars can't be choosers). And it corners like a DREAM! Thoroughly enjoyed a silent Le Mans between a late-model VW and myself, all the way from Havelock to Nelson. He never pipped me. He had the superior vehicle, but (it goes without saying, of course!) I had the superior skills. Upon breaking free from the slower-than-molasses peak-hour traffic in Nelson (seriously; push bikes, invalid snails and blind Freddy on his moped whizzed past!), I sauntered on back through Murchison and Reefton to Greymouth without much fanfare (although PLENTY of rain). My epic road-trip was 1734km long in 3 days. Now in Australia, that's really nothing. Heck, I've done more than that in ONE day before, but then, these Niu Sila roads are a LOT more challenging. And enjoyable. :) 340 smackeroos worth of fuel later, and I arrived back in town about 8pm, ready to crack on at work the next day. :)