Planning: Clothes

The much delayed part II of the gear post: clothing! I'll just jump right in...



T-shirts

I carried two t-shirts - one for daytime use, and one to wear while sleeping. I liked this system better than just swapping shirts every morning, because I always had something clean-ish to sleep in. Liz carried two t-shirts and one lightweight, long sleeved shirt for sleeping. In hindsight, she thinks she would have been happy with just two shirts.

We both tried our first Merino wool shirts on this trip. The marketing for Merino claims that it is anti-microbial, and doesn't hold a smell, which I didn't believe. I thought: "clearly they've never tested it on an actually smelly hiker."

Well, I was wrong. Merino really doesn't hold much of a smell, even when you, personally, smell awful. I carried one synthetic shirt and one Merino shirt, and the difference between the two was unbelievable. I am 100% converted to Merino wool shirts at this point. The only thing that stops me from wearing it 24/7, on and off the trail, is the price. Keep your eye out for sales on these, and snatch them up, you won't be sorry.

One of my shirts was an Icebreaker Merino Wool T-shirt. Liz got this for me before we left, which is good, because I never could have brought myself to pay that much ($50, on sale) for a t-shirt. This shirt held up admirably, considering I wore it every single day, but I eventually wore some serious holes in the shoulders and had to retire it to sleepwear. I wanted to buy another one along the way, but couldn't bring myself to pay $120NZD from the outdoor stores there.

Lots of holes, some of them sewn up. Also, notice how
sunbleached the shoulders are? Wear your sunscreen!

Despite wearing out, the Icebreaker shirt was the highest quality, most durable 100% Merino shirt we've encountered. You can find cheaper 100% Merino shirts, but I think you will find they wear out fairly quickly. Icebreaker is worth the extra money.

Liz wore a Patagonia Merino 1 T-shirt, and liked it. The material is very thin, and it was great for hot days, but we were sure it wouldn't last the whole trip. However, she didn't wear it as often as I wore my Icebreaker, and somehow it did manage make it all the way home without any holes.

Socks & Underwear

I carried 3 pairs of socks - 2 pairs for daytime use, and one only for sleeping. This ensured that I always had a dry pair to put on at night. Liz carried 4 pairs, but never really used her fourth.

PHD Lightweight Crew Socks are the best hiking socks we've used. We saw them in exactly one store in NZ, so buy before you go. They are warm, have a reasonable amount of padding, but are not crazy thick like many socks marketed for hiking. They also hold up well - the pairs I wore on the trail are still in great shape.

We also tried out Darn Tough Socks for the first time. These were good too, but I think we both found the PHDs to be a bit more comfortable. The Darn Toughs have vertical ribbing over the shin area, and it ended up irritating us a little bit. We still wore these the whole way, and they hardly showed any signs of wear, but we would have preferred to have all PHDs.

For underwear, I continued the Merino trend and had 2 pairs of Icebreaker Boxers. I used one pair for walking, and the other for sleeping. I went over this in the Icebreaker t-shirt section above, but it's worth reiterating here: Merino is unbelievably unsmelly. I won't go into any more detail, but these boxers were more than worth it. They made it the whole way, but are understandably a bit threadbare after 6 months of continuous wear.

Liz found an Icebreaker Sports Bra on clearance while we were in NZ, and switched from a Patagonia Active Mesh sports bra. She liked the Icebreaker a bit more - it smelled better and dried a lot faster. However, the Patagonia could double as a bathing suit, but the Icebreaker was a bit too thin for that.

Baselayers

We both had Capilene 3, quarter zip, long sleeved shirts for everyday use. These shirts are great - they last forever. I carried one for the entire trail, and it hardly shows any wear, even after 3,000 km. They are fairly warm, and when we are moving it is rare that I need another layer over the Capilene. I can't recommend these highly enough, even for non-hiking use - I wear mine constantly at home.

We both carried Capiline 3 bottoms as well. I kept these in the bounce box until we got to the South Island, but was really glad I took them out. It was never cold enough to need them during the day, but I often changed into them when we got to a hut, especially when my hiking pants were wet or dirty. They were a good compromise between carrying an extra pair of pants and having to suffer in muddy, sopping wet pants until it was time to get in the sleeping bag.

Jackets (and other warm stuff)

We both have Montbell synthetic jackets. Synthetic jackets are slightly heavier than down for the same warmth, but down is useless when it gets wet. We figured that, if things went south in cold weather, we'd want jackets that could still insulate if they got wet.

I have a Thermawrap, and Liz has a Thermawrap Pro, which is a bit warmer and has a hood. The regular Thermawrap was warm enough for me, but Liz was very happy to have the Pro on a couple of the colder days and evenings. It was rare that it was cold enough to wear these while we were moving, but it did happen.

When there is frost on the tussocks, Liz is happy to have a warm jacket

We also carried warm fleece hats and lightweight gloves, and did end up needing these in the evenings and even while walking on a few of the colder days.

Rain Gear

Rain gear on the TA is important. It definitely rains. My philosophy on rain is that, if it rains hard enough or long enough, everything gets wet no matter how hard you try or how much money you spend on rain gear.

Just about all rain gear is made from waterproof-breathable material - it's waterproof from the outside, but slightly breathable from the inside. (GoreTex is waterproof-breathable, and, at least in the lab, is one of the most breathable types of waterproof-breathable fabrics.) This, in theory, allows your sweat to evaporate while keeping rain out. In reality, these materials, even GoreTex, are waterproof-and-maybe-a-tiny-little-bit-breathable. If you exert yourself at all while wearing them, you'll probably be almost as wet with sweat as you would be from the rain.

With all that in mind, we went super cheap on our rain gear. We use DriDucks. They cost $21 per pair, are super light (10.4 oz!), and are somewhat breathable. Oh, and they are incredibly fashionable as well.

Lookin' good

The main downside to these is that they are fairly fragile. If you catch them on a branch, they will rip. We ripped the crap out of two pairs of our pants and one of the jackets. Luckily, duct tape repairs them pretty well, and we had backups in the bounce box. We were able to order 4 pairs of these for less than the price of a single high quality rain jacket. Worth the tradeoff, in my opinion.

Shoes

We both wore trail runners for the entire trail, and would use the same footwear if we were to do it again. I won't go into trail runners vs. boots here, but I will say that there is nothing on the TA that requires boots. If you prefer trail runners, you can wear them on this trail. If you prefer boots, you can wear them too, although you may want some alternative footwear for the road sections.

I wore Brooks Cascadias, and Liz had a pair of Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra 2s. We were both very happy with our shoes, although Liz dreamed of hybrid boot/trail runners that paired up the breathability of trail runners with the thicker sole of boots.

If there was a type of shoe that kept this from happening, I would buy them

Headnets

We carried tiny headnets: BPL Ultralight Headnet. Sandflies are nasty, but don't tend to go for your face, so we didn't wear these often. But, for the times we did need to wear them, we were really happy we had them. More of a requirement on a trail with mosquitos, but for 9 grams, well worth carrying.

Poles

Ok, technically poles aren't clothing, but I left them out of the last gear post, so here they are. In my opinion, poles are an essential piece of gear. Even in 2014, you will still get weird looks from some people who think that poles are only for old people. But, they literally saved our lives multiple times, and also took some serious strain off our knees during descents. I've even heard claims that, on flat ground, they increase your walking efficiency by 15%. I'm not sure I buy that, but they certainly help on steep, rough terrain.

I used Leki Micro Vario TIs, and Liz used Black Diamond Trail Compact poles. The Lekis were superior. They were strong, had very comfortable grips, folded up nicely, and had minimal vibration when using them. The Black Diamonds weren't bad, but the grips were not as comfortable, especially going downhill. The Lekis were easier to hold from the top - the Black Diamond design clearly didn't take that use into account. I would recommend Lekis over Black Diamonds.


Well, that about does it for gear. If you have any questions - about gear or anything else - please don't hesitate to leave a comment or send me an email!