# Outdoors > Gear and Equipment >  Wapiti Ballot, 9 days of food....

## Ryan_Songhurst

Right team, after some advice and opinions as to how to go about planning our food supplies for the Wap ballot. We are going in 1st period, heading in using my boat and a dinghy across lake Hankinson (we have Wapiti River) At the moment we are planning to hunt as we go which will mean we need to carry everything with us. In the interest of going light as possible it's looking like dehy is the only option, and even 9 days if dehy is going to take up a fair bit of room. Would it maybe worth risking going a bit light on the dehy and hope we can bowl a meat animal at some stage? I was thinking earlier of attempting an overnight mission into the area, getting as far into the block as possible and making a food dump, but  headed to Uruguay in a couple weeks time and will basically be getting off the plane when I return, chucking some half decent threads on then attending my sisters wedding before heading for Te Anau, so it's fair to say I'm pressed for time. Any advice around what to do, what to take etc greatly appreciated.
Cheers

----------


## stug

We did 9 days once, back in 1991, when there wasn't as much choice. Rice for bulk, peas for colouring, soup for flavour for dinner. But we got a bit sick of it after a while. Porridge for breakfast. Did take some brown sugar though. Luckily got an animal on day 2 so had some fresh meat. 
Choices are a lot better now. For weight and bulk I would still go porridge, but it will use more fuel and has to be cooked. I've never tried instant porridge but that might be better. For shorter trips in a ziplock bag I mix up 100g toasted musesli, 2 spoons milk powder and some sultanas. All you have to do is pour hot water over it. 
Lunch, crackers, cheese, salami. Might do pita breads or paninis for the first few days. 
Dinner, mix of freeze dried and dehy meals. You use to be able to get tuna in foil packets. Or add some of the salami. Kaweka meals are nice but a bit heavier.

----------


## Dreamer

Check this post out, might give you some ideas
http://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co.n...92/index3.html

----------


## JoshC

You really need to break your food down to what you will eat (expect to eat) per day if you plan on carrying it on your back. I was in a wap block last year in this is what i did. 

I treated it like any other multi-day back packing hunt, but I hadn't done a 9-10 day trip for a few years.

For me breakfasts consisted of prepacked muesli/nutrigrain, brown sugar, extra raisins and milk powder (in small glad bags). Added warm water in the morning and was away within minutes.

Lunch was salami, cheeses, panini bread and dried fruit. Took a couple of apples and oranges, one for every second day, because I crave that when I'm away. 

Dinner was a freeze dried meal, I took Absolute Wilderness ones and rate them over back-country. Sometimes I'd follow dinner up with a instant dessert, or freeze dry dessert. 

I took extra snickers/peanut slabs/moro bars. Like one per day. And some muesli bars. And barley sugars.

Plenty of tea bags and milk powder. 

With this and all my camping gear, my pack weighed about 17 kgs by memory. Camera, rifle, binos were extra obviously.

We left a stash of food in a plastic drum back at the lake, with intentions of going out mid way thru the trip and re stocking, but in the end we didn't. Walked out the evening of our last day and had a feast that night.

----------


## outdoorlad

Bottom line is you will be carrying a fairly heavy pack around, work on 800g-1kg per day for food. It's a high energy use trip so you need high energy food.  

Porridge with raisins/brown sugar & milk powder, I used to use those uncle Toby sachets but they are bit processed & small so I make my own up in a small ziplock bag. Sometimes I'll put some protein powder or sliced almonds in as well.

Lunch, crackers, cheese, salami, tuna (you can get it in those soft foil packets rather than tins) 1/2 a capsicum for the first few days 

Dinner, your stuck with dehydrate meals, I take a zucchini to chop in the first couple of nights, you can take a couple of 1 serve ones & bulk them up with some cous cous? 

Tea, coffee, Nuts, chocolate, soups, barely sugars 
I like my fruit so take half dozen mandarins.

Have fun.

----------


## scoped

hi, don't know if this is much help, just done a 6 day mission in the kawekas so here was my food allowances each day

breakfast 2x porridge sachets
Snacks 2x OSM, 2x Mini packets of Peanuts, 2x Salami Sticks, 2x Mini whittakers
Lunch - boil in bag rice, instant pasta or noodles ( different each day for variety)
Dinner 1 serve Dehy
Treats/Dessert - Choc coated Peanuts, packet of licorice, 2 serve BC apple pie x1
Tea/coffee/sugar/soup/milo

Pack weight with no food, ie clothes,daypack,saw,fm radio camping and cooking gear and hunting stuff ( binos rangefinder meatbag etc) 17kg
food weight per day equalled around 800gm-1kg

Since bad weather could have been expected and our route out was exposed I took an extra days food as per above

Id add an extra OSM per day

this was not fiordland but if I was, id base myself on that.

interesting to hear what others are taking as its not a topic that's covered lots with real world advice

----------


## Tommy

Does Pronutro get used much in NZ? It was originally designed as famine relief/aid drop food. It's a light powder which can be mixed with hot/cold water or milk and comes in a few flavours (choc, banana, strawberry etc). It has pretty much everything in it you need to live, 18 vitamins, that kinda thing. People either love it or hate it (like people hate or love marmite/vegemite), but it is very light, and cheap as chips.

We used to put a dose in a light plastic bag (like the ones you get in the vege section), tip in some water, tie a knot in the bag and give it a squidge/mix, then rip a hole in the corner with your teeth and squeeze it out into your mouth and eat it as you walked. Something to consider anyway..

Buy bokomo pronutro south african banana cereal 500g online at countdown.co.nz
Buy bokomo pronutro south african chocolate cereal 500g online at countdown.co.nz

The other saffers on here will know what I'm on about

----------


## craigc

I'm pretty much the same as Scoped and Joshc; I lean towards Scoped idea of the prepacked porridge, that instant stuff is awesome. I personally boil it in a pot for 30 seconds. I plan my food around one pot and only boiling water, I've just picked up a jet boil after trying to get the MSR going inside an expensive tent in storm...
There's shit, OK and great dehydrated meals, spend a bit more and get some decent tasty stuff. Last trip I just had the cheap stuff, the roast chicken was ok the beef and pasta was almost inedible. Fuck it was shit, real shit... The back county stuff.

----------


## craigc

Look at the outdoor gourmet company stuff on trademe or the Swazi shop in Levin

----------


## Kooza

> hi, don't know if this is much help, just done a 6 day mission in the kawekas so here was my food allowances each day
> 
> breakfast 2x porridge sachets
> Snacks 2x OSM, 2x Mini packets of Peanuts, 2x Salami Sticks, 2x Mini whittakers
> Lunch - boil in bag rice, instant pasta or noodles ( different each day for variety)
> Dinner 1 serve Dehy
> Treats/Dessert - Choc coated Peanuts, packet of licorice, 2 serve BC apple pie x1
> Tea/coffee/sugar/soup/milo
> 
> ...


thanks for that, I was gonna pm you on what you took cause I thought your packs looked half fill!!

I am a fan of kaweka meals, if you bulk up the instant mash portion with some more from another packet and I've started to take some pita bread away on trips as well, garlic ones fried up are bloody good to clean off your plate.

----------


## Ryan_Songhurst

Did a bit of a test run on packing gear today, total weight of everything I will be carrying came to bang on 20kg, that's contents of my pack, plus my rifle, boots, binos, clothes I'm wearing, camera etc. Only things I may add are my iPad (for topos and rainy day reading) and a tripod for my camera. Pretty happy with that, should leave plenty of room for food.

----------


## StrikerNZ

> Did a bit of a test run on packing gear today, total weight of everything I will be carrying came to bang on 20kg, that's contents of my pack, plus my rifle, boots, binos, clothes I'm wearing, camera etc. Only things I may add are my iPad (for topos and rainy day reading) and a tripod for my camera. Pretty happy with that, should leave plenty of room for food.



20kg is not a bad weight at all, especially including rifle!

I spy a nice little C8 there.. tested it out yet?

----------


## Ryan_Songhurst

> 20kg is not a bad weight at all, especially including rifle!
> 
> I spy a nice little C8 there.. tested it out yet?


Yea mate, thanks for the recommendation it's exactly what I need

----------


## Ryan_Songhurst

So, I have been planning meals based on the following items, have just collected them alltogether, got told off for making a mess of the pantry, then got told off for using the kitchen scales and weighed it all...

1 pack of 6 flatbreads/wraps 390gms
500gm Salami 500gms (surprise surprise...)
8x 2-serve dehy dinners 1500gms
3x dehy bfasts 600gms
100gms coffee 100gms
100gms sugar 100gms
3x small tins chicken (for wraps) 390gms
300gms cheese 300gms
150gms milkpowder 150gms
X2 apples 250gms
X3 oranges 400gms
X8 peanut slabs 400gms
X6 uncle tobys oat sachets 210gms
300gms dried fruit 300gms
100gms chocolate protein powder (will make 2 shakes) 100gms

Brings me to a grand total of 5690gms, 5.69kg and with my meal plan works out to be plenty.
Looks like im sorted, sort of....

----------


## Ryan_Songhurst

Might even be room for a cheeky hipflask in there I reckon....

----------


## MSL

iPad, hip flask, maybe a solar powered foot spa?

----------


## BobGibson

Have you considered making your own dehydrated meals.
Dehydrators are cheep and easy to use.
I frequently dehydrate left over meals like soups, stews, curries and the like and they last for months.
The bonus is you get to eat food that you like the taste of

----------


## Ryan_Songhurst

> Have you considered making your own dehydrated meals.
> Dehydrators are cheep and easy to use.
> I frequently dehydruate left over meals like soups, stews, curries and the like and they last for months.
> The bonus is you get to eat food that you like the taste of


I have actually thought about giving it a go, do they re-hydrate well?

----------


## Ryan_Songhurst

> iPad, hip flask, maybe a solar powered foot spa?


My ipad actually weighs about the same as a magazine but can hold tons of reading material and also has the great Maptoaster topos on it, my mrs has also managed to put a couple seasons of home and away on it I cant seem to get rid of (just ask anyone I have been hunting with before...... Late at night, all in our respective tents and that familiar theme song wafts quietly through the air...  @sambnz : "Are you watching fucking home and away in there!?"..... Haha) I was actually thinking of taking a couple of beers in case we have something to celebrate but for power-to-weight factor the hipflask with some Johny Walker black wins hands down....

----------


## gadgetman

One option I used to do for longer trips was growing mung beans and adding the sprouts to the meals for something fresh from day 4 onwards. Weighs very little and can just go into space in top of pack from first days meals. I used to also take dehyd spud and vege then add salami for a meal. A loaf of bread was good for the first couple of days then switch to cabin bread (a big cracker). Could add cheese, salami, bean sprouts, vegemite, ....whatever else you want to the cabin bread

----------


## BobGibson

Some rehydrate better than others. Anything with large chunks of meat needs a while but mince is ok.
Dont bother dehydrating rice on its own. Better to buy pre cooked rice as it only takes a few minutes
I get frozen vegetables and put them in the dehydrator frozen and they come out ok.
Forgot to add that you really need to vacuum all dehydrated food .
I make up a full days provisions of individual bags then vacuum pack the lot.
That way I just grab the number of packs I need for the number of days.

----------


## craigc

Ryan, fresh or dehydrate fruit?

If water is no problem take dehydrated...

----------


## Ryan_Songhurst

> Ryan, fresh or dehydrate fruit?
> 
> If water is no problem take dehydrated...


In the list of things that I weighed the two apples and three oranges were fresh, plus I had some dried fruit there that I thought would go good beefing up the oats sachets at breakfast time and also general snacking. I don't really like the weight of the fresh fruit but I really like the idea of a nice juicy orange or apple when the going has been tough, maybe I can do generations to come a favour and plant the seeds! haha

----------


## Ryan_Songhurst

> One option I used to do for longer trips was growing mung beans and adding the sprouts to the meals for something fresh from day 4 onwards. Weighs very little and can just go into space in top of pack from first days meals. I used to also take dehyd spud and vege then add salami for a meal. A loaf of bread was good for the first couple of days then switch to cabin bread (a big cracker). Could add cheese, salami, bean sprouts, vegemite, ....whatever else you want to the cabin bread


Have been putting more thought into the list and I think Mung beans will be a goer, I had been thinking of something to give the wraps a bit of "freshness" and carting a lettuce around wasn't going to cut it.
Will also add cabin bread/crackers to eat with salami and cheese.

----------

