Revision

Three days at home, bliss. The weather forecast looks okay for the Tararua Ranges so I will leave again tomorrow. 

I revised my kit by ditching the decomposing merino base layer (the new one is black, I couldn't find a coloured one) and buying a down jacket to replace my lovely warm Swazi polyester shirt (saving 384g and about 1 litre volume). 

A new pair of trousers for town weigh 20g more than the old pair but won't fall off, and a fresh can of gas takes weight up a little.

The new base weight is 8.1 kg. 

Food for five days in the Tararuas and water take total pack weight to 11 kg.

Meantime, an Ajuga seedling I carried home from Mangapurua Valley in a meusli bar wrapper is looking very chipper...

This is the flower, it must be a hardy old variety to persist near a farm abandoned 80 years ago. 

Wellington is about 8 days away!