Gear List

With 12-months of travel on the horizon and an ambitious plan to hike, bike, surf and ski our way across continents, a significant amount of thought and preparation went into our gear list.

This write up is for the gear heads who want to know the ins-and-outs of exactly what made it into our bags and boxes and across the other side of the world. This is a long read, and deliberately detailed, so feel free to skip this one if you're not interested 😄

Breaking it down

We split our packing into three distinct components:

1. South America back packing
2. Europe bike packing
3. Europe ski season

Logistics

Logistically, packing and getting our gear overseas was a mammoth effort of coordination (and luck).

While we had originally planned to ship our bikes and ski gear to Europe in March and pick it up in Hamburg, Germany when we arrived in July, the cost to ship 2 bike boxes was pure insanity (i'm talking NZD$2,000+). Fortunately Louis (Max's younger brother) was moving to Hamburg 2 weeks before we departed to play professional hockey. With some sweet talking and the payment of all ubers, we managed to send Louis off on his flight with 90kg of checked luggage including his hockey bags and our 2 bike boxes - phew!

For our ski gear, which we didn't need until November, Max's Dad kindly offered to take it with him to Hamburg, Germany in September when he was travelling over for work. We would then pick up our ski gear in Europe before the start of the ski season.

Finally, that meant that we could leave NZ in April with just our back packs and everything we would need for South America.

South America

Our first stop is South America where we had 3-months of back packing lined up, including multi-day hiking and other outdoor activities.

Given we would be travelling mostly by public transport (buses, flying, taxis and walking) our setup had to be manageable but also cater for the variety of activities we had lined up; we wanted to ensure we were self-sufficient and had the right gear for the job.

Our first stop was the Patagonia region in southern Chile and Argentina where we had a 5-day hike linked up in the Torres Del Paine national park. As the region was heading into autumn and was subject to pretty abhorrent weather generally, we had to ensure we had enough warm gear with us.

The packing list:

Packs:

• Osprey 65L back packs
• Osprey 15-20L day packs

Sleeping:

• Sea to Summit Spark -1 down sleeping bag
• Sea to Summit thermal and breeze liners
• Sleeping mat (cheap ones from Torpedo 7)
• Travel pillow
• MSR Hubba Hubba 2 person tent

Other essentials:

• Jetboil
• ResQLink PLB
• Powerbank
• Radix freeze dried meals x5 each
• Aquatabs
• Headlamp
• Travel towel
• Chargers including international adapter and multibox
• Laptop (one to share)
• Kobo
• Airpods
• Camping cup & cutlery
• Monopoly Deal
• First aid kit + a consortium of drugs
• Vaccine passport
• International driver's license
• Osprey 3L bladder

Clothing and footwear:

• Patagonia (iconic) goretex jacket
• Wind breaker
• Puffer jacket
• Fleece midlayer
• Thermals & polyprops
• Pants (x2), shorts (x2), t-shirts (x5)
• Beanie, cap and buff
• Merino gloves
• Outdoor Research sun hoodie
• La Sportiva hiking boots
• Plastic birks from the Warehouse ($8 each)
• Hoka sneakers (Max) and casual shoes (Laura)

You will notice we have a lot of matching gear - and this has also taken years to accumulate.

Europe bike packing

The setup that inevitably took the most amount of thought and detail was ensuring that we had fit-for-purpose bike packing setups. Gravel bikes were the obvious choice for the predominantly sealed roads we would be riding on, with the odd mix of gravel thrown in there.

We were planning to be fully self-sufficient, either freedom camping or staying in camp grounds with the odd Airbnb or accomodation thrown in when we needed it. Therefore, our setups had to be substantial enough to support this method.

Max, having owned his gravel bike for 18-months or so and having the opportunity to test various setups settled on a classic rear pannier rack and mix-and-match racks for the frame bag, fork cages and front bar roll. Laura, managing to score a great deal from Andrew at Hub Cycles (long time legend) on her gravel bike opted for the pricier but certified "best" bike packing setup with a full Tailfin arrangement - Max is VERY jealous.

Many hours of research, testing and pestering friends went into finessing our final setups - thanks to all our friend's patience.

Max's setup:

• Bike: Cube Nuroad C:62 Pro full carbon
• Componentry: Shimano GRX 11 speed x1
• Rear rack: classic pannier rack with Ortlieb City Bags (40L)
• Frame bag: Tailfin half frame bag (3L)
• Fork mounts: Topeak Versacage + Salsa Anything Cage Bag (3.35L each)
• Front roll: Miss Grape Ilcoso + Sea to Summit 8L dry bag
• Tyres: Specialized Pathfinder 42m tyres setup tubeless
• ULAC saddle bag: large enough to store 3x AliExpress TPU tubes, tyre levers, multitool, zip ties, patch kit, airtag, quick links and electrical tape
• Pedals: Shimano SPD MTB pedals
• Security: Abus chain lock (heavy but necessary), Knog Scout bike alarm, Airtag
• Extras: Garmin Edge 540, lights, hand pump, Squirt chain lube, Smith Wildcat Photo-chromatic

Laura's setup:

• Bike: Canondale Topstone Carbon
• Componentry: Shimano GRX 11 speed x2
• Rear rack: Tailfin alloy rear rack + pannier bag (18L)
• Top tube storage: Apidura (1L)
• Fork mounts: Tailfin fork packs (5L each)
• Front roll: Tailfin bar bag system (5-8L)
• Tyres: Schwalbe One with inner tubes
• Pedals: Shimano SPD road pedals
• Security: Abus coil lock, Knog Scout bike alarm, Airtag
• Extras: Garmin Edge 520+, lights, hand pump, Smith Wildcat Photo-chromatic glasses

Bike packing gear list

Combining the items we had pre-sent to Germany and the items we were already using in South America, our pack-list for the bike packing portion of our journey is somewhat as follows:

• Sea to Summit Spark -1 sleeping bag x1 to share
• Sea to Summit breeze liner
• Travel pillow
• Inflatable sleeping mat
• MSR Hubba Hubba 2 person tent
• Jetboil
• ResQLink PLB
• First aid kit + a consortium of drugs
• Vaccine passport
• International driver's license
• Power bank + chargers
• Patagonia goretex jacket
• Puffer jacket
• 2x Tineli cargo bibs
• Headlamp
• Travel towel
• Kobo
• Airpods
• Camping cup & cutlery

Pictured above are 2 Tardis bike bags made by Ground Effect in Christchurch. These bags are superior for travel, particularly in travel on public transport (trains and buses) during peak summer in adherence to the strict requirements for bikes. Unfortunately, these bike bags fell victim to a last minute re-pack at the airport and got the cut. Thanks to Cherie from Ground Effect for your support nonetheless - I owe you one.

Europe ski season

Packing our ski bag was, thankfully, the easiest task of them all. We packed only the essentials, planning to fill the gaps as we needed (and an excuse to buy new ski gear too).

• Max's skis: K2 Mindbender 108s with Atomic Shift MNC bindings
• Laura's skis: K2 Mindbender 96s with Atomic Shift MNC bindings
• Max's boots: Fisher Ranger One 130
• Laura's boots: Technica Cochise 105
• Transceiver, shovel, probe
• G3 skins
• Helmet & goggles
• Petzl Vasak crampons
• Grivel ice axe
• BD harness and glacier rack.
• Outdoor Research Carbide Bibs

If you made it this far, then i'm very impressed and you'll be thinking why the hell did they pick such expensive hobbies.... yup!

Anyway, if you have any questions or want to know any specifics, please don't hesitate to reach out. Our gist list will adapt and change as we progress, but this hopefully provides a bit of an overview.