Seeking your suggestions.....

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Next year, provided my application for Australian Survivor doesn't go through, I want to go solo in the backcountry on my own for at least a month. No huts, no people. Just me. I'm thinking Fiordland, but not exactly sure where. Will have a packraft, so any spot I can get to combining foot and paddle travel. Does anyone have any specific suggestions? And if so, why there? (Good fishing/hunting/water source etc). Cheers all. :)
talk to the local Deer Stalkers
Hokitika back country. Urewera. Fiordland.
west coast would be my choice. away from the main routes. few members on here know it well south westland is nice country but not a lot of tracks between valleys, would be harder going
Central or South Westland or Southern Fiordland. The coastal resources of South Westland and Southern Fiordland would be a big bonus when it comes to food supply and variety. Central Westland offers some remote huts you could make use of where the likelihood of meeting other people is very low.
Do you have any kayaking experience? My thoughts regarding spending a month alone more or less living off the land / ocean would be to get a real sea kayak and head into Doubtful Sound. Somewhere like Bradshaw Sound / Gaer Arm / Camelot River and that area is pretty remote but easy to get to if you can get a sea kayak into Deep Cove in Doubtful Sound. Kayak gives you ability to carry more food and gear - good tent plus a big tent fly with a metre or two of insect netting sewn in all around the edge makes coastal Fiordland much more bearable. It also gives you a much greater opportunity to catch fish, you'd be able to do quite well with nothing but a sack of rice and or flour and or lentils and a fishing line. I'd be impressed if you could manage a month living on just what you could catch from the ocean. (Though if you got one of those (probably mythical) moose in the Camelot, you'd be doing all right for food for a while!) You could access some remote tramping as well while returning to your base camp / kayak each time. Other possibility would be to do the same on Stewart Island - If you could get to Port Adventure either by paddling down from Oban or being dropped off by boat with a kayak you could pretty much live on oyster chowder down there. Outer part of Dusky Sound would have similar opportunities though harder to get a kayak into there. Float plane with a kayak tied to a skid or get a real folding kayak?
Moose and being alone only makes me think of the book into the wild? That didn't end so well.
I know someone who reckons they did this for 6 weeks. It was fascinating. He shot a deer and then smoked the meat and stored it in a fridge made from pumice-like material. The top half had a wee depression in it and water dripped in there kept the fridge cool. He used to entertain himself by stalking and scaring trampers at night in huts. He would run a stick along the outside walls of a corrugated iron hut. This led to rumours that the hut was haunted. He was just being playful, not a wierdo. Also Aarn Tate did a similar live off the land experience over a period of time on Stewart Island, including building a kayak!
Raukumaras would be another spot to disappear with a rifle for a month or two. Ridiculous numbers of deer and enough country to get lost in. Spattering of huts - for when you need a luxury. And the chances of meeting anyone as close to nil as you can get Pretty rough 5hough ...
"He was just being playful, not a wierdo." Right, scaring people for fun, not weird at all… Besides I don't see the point in trying to get alone if your only way to occupy your time is seeking contact with other people…
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Forum Tracks, routes, and huts
Started by Kreig
On 20 November 2016
Replies 10
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