There went a lot of organisation into this hike. I’ve had spreadsheets for years including possible gear, my planned route as well as any other details to organise. As the money and time only covers one Island I decided to hike the South Island as I prefer to wilder parts over the more densely populated areas. The gear list was mostly taken over from previous hikes I had done with some adjustments being done.

My main organisational challenge was to set a rough outline about where I will be at what time, how long I will take for certain sections and where to get resupply from. For this rough estimate I used the trail notes as well as a TA South Island Data Book that was provided to me to beta test. As I will be just starting out in the South Island as well as to account for bad weather I always estimate to take the longer time for a section.

I have not completely read/planned every little section, as I will probably increase my pace along the way. I also have not read all the trail notes yet as I will forget them again anyways and will rather read them as the sections are coming up to know what comes next.

After getting the rough outline done I looked into the places along the trail to resupply. From tiny stored to big supermarkets in cities. I decided pretty soon to send food parcels to certain locations along the trail. These locations might have a small store but I do not want to rely on their products to get everything I need for a weeks worth of food.

So I am sending food parcels to the DOC Pelorus Bridge Campground, St. Arnaud and Arthur’s Pass. I always pack an extra days worth of food just in case I run into bad weather or take longer than estimated.

Upon my arrival in Christchurch I spent two days going food shopping for the things I wanted. If I were not planning to spend 2.5 months on end hiking I would probably feel bad about the type of food that I purchased, as healthy options are somewhat lacking in my food selections. As it is, I will go for fresh things when hitting stores along the way. After getting all the food together, I repackaged everything, especially oats for breakfast, into portions for each day before sending off 3 packages. The parcel price in NZ depends on the size * weight. Two packages for the longer sections each came to 21,50$ while the smaller package was 12,70$ and includes tracking. Although if a package is not there when I need it, a tracking number will not be of help to me then. I will have to see how it goes. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll have to hitchhike to the next town. All packages are addressed to me saying “TA hiker walker due” and then my estimated arrival date.

The other thing I organised while in Christchurch was a DOC 6 month hut pass. I probably could have gotten one in Picton but it is good to get everything possible out of the way.

So, now the food is all organised and send off, all that is left to do is pack my backpack, drive to Picton and set off. In order to get to Picton I organised a free (yes that’s right, free!) rental car from transfercar.co.nz. With so many people visiting New Zealand and getting rental cars, most of them are going down south and then leave the car at a different location than where they picked it up. The rental companies need to relocate these cars back to where they came from. In order to save on staff driving the cars back, they offer the cars for free, usually for a day or two, sometimes with one tank of fuel included as well as the ferry crossings if going between the Islands. So I put in for a car from Christchurch to Picton, got it for free for two days and it even includes one tank of fuel which should be just enough to get me to Hanmer and then on to Picton:)