Packrafting in NZ

I'm writing this post in December, 2025, in preparation for couple of weeks' holidays In January / February. I understand packrafting now may sound a bit extreme, but hey, it is peak summer now in New Zealand. And NZ is where it all started - I found this article (see the snapshot) in an old magazine that was left in one of the New Zealand's mountain huts. That was in 2024 - almost two years ago.

Since then we have completed a white water packrafting camp to get familiar with packrafts and river rafting / kayaking in general. That was in Slovenia, and is a great idea for an active summer adventure in Europe. Then we found a great supplier of packrafting gear in Poland - I mentioned packraft.pl in my Spring'2025 post on the subject.

Now we are back to where it all began. Not as ambitious as Mitchell Radford, but his documentary is definitely a good one to understand what this activity is all about. 

We're also trying to pack much lighter than he did. 39 kg / 85 lbs sounds extreme. My complete raft set (including the paddle, the cargo bow bag, the floatation vest, the helmet, and the packraft itself) is about 6kg. The sleeping bag, the tent, the sleeping mat and cookware are 2kg in total. The iPhone is the only "camera gear". And we take less food, as our stints will be a couple of days max. So I'm looking at probably 12kg max and eating some of that on the way down to ~10kg. 

New Zealand hiking is demanding because of very uneven terrain (no beaten paths), so carrying less not only lets you do more, but also brings down the risk of orthopedic injury. This approach paid off many times for me on several occasions - be it the West Coast Trail in Canada, the Atlas mountains in Morocco or the New Zealand itself.