Blade Master

You're standing in the tackle aisle, looking at rods, reels, braid, mono, soft baits, sinkers, nets, boots, knives, pliers, and about ten different bits of gear that all claim to be “essential”. That's where buyers often lose money. They buy a pile of equipment before they've worked out where they'll fish, what species they're targeting, and what New Zealand rules allow them ...

You pull into camp late. The light is dropping behind the ridge, the wind has picked up, and the ground is wetter than the forecast suggested. One person is trying to pitch the tent in a hurry, another is digging through bags for the head torch, and someone eventually says the sentence every Kiwi camper knows too well: “Did anyone pack the stove?”

A good trip can survi...

You've got the stove, the shell layer, the dry socks, and the map. Then you start laying out food for the trip and realise the heaviest part of your pack often isn't gear at all. It's what you're going to eat.

That's where most trampers hit the same problem. You need enough energy to keep moving, enough flavour to want dinner at the end of a wet day, and a format that ...

A lot of people start looking for a double air mattress at the same moment. The spare room is full of boxes, family is arriving tomorrow, or the weather finally looks good enough for a weekend at the campsite and nobody wants another night half asleep on a thin foam pad.

That's where most buying mistakes happen. People shop by price, by the photo on the box, or by how ...

You usually notice your mat choice at about 2 am.

The sleeping bag is decent, the tent is holding, and you're tired enough to sleep anywhere. Then the cold starts creeping up from the ground. Hips press through. Shoulders go numb. By morning, you haven't really rested at all. A lot of NZ trampers blame the weather or the campsite. More often, the mat was the weak link....