So, what should you eat on your 3000 km kiwi adventure? Well. Embrace the fact that you will get sick of everything. You will have weird cravings. That being said, you are hiking in a country with one of the best food selections in the world. New Zealand is world famous for its plastic-free, “naked” produce and its amazing greens. Do yourself a favour and mix up the backpacker food with as much fresh foods as you can.

NZ has an amazing selection of energy bars and raw products, just experiment to find your favourite. Buy the expensive beef jerky. When at New World, do not miss the bulk nut section! Pro tip: Cinnamon Cashews mixed with French Vanilla Almonds literally taste like cinnamon buns.

Also, all this stuff about hikers getting stick-thin despite eating whatever they want… Yeah, no. By the end, I had bruises on my increasingly voluminous shoulders and hips from constantly bumping into things, and almost none of my old clothes fit me anymore. I gained 7 kg of mostly muscle (I attribute the non-muscle to Whittaker’s chocolate!). I felt fit, but huge. During the first three weeks I slimmed down, especially after the Richmond Ranges I was pretty shredded. After that I piled on like a linebacker. Go easy on the sugar, people.

Here follows some meal ideas based on what I typically ate:

Breakfast

Usually two sachets of instant oatmeal, Uncle Toby’s were the best. However, the mere sight of oatmeal will make you cry after about 700 km. Variations of energy bars are easy because they require no prepping. Hard-boiled eggs after a town stay were the best!

Lunch

Tortillas, Farrah’s are the best by far, with peanut butter & Nutella. A hiker favourite, it never gets old. Add some chips for crunch!

Alternatively, carry fresh food out of town to fill your tortillas for a couple of days. Salami and hard cheese keep longer, and most supermarkets sell packets of shredded chicken. Other filling ideas: baby spinach, eggs, hummus, pesto, avocado, cured ham.

Dinner 1

Sigh… Those green bags of Backcountry Cuisine will make you wish you’d taken up a different hobby. STAY AWAY! Except for the Spaghetti Bolognese, which is omnomnom. If you are feeling decadent and have the budget for it, go with the Outdoor Gourmet meals, these come in black pouches and cost a few dollars more. But they are sooo good… Nothing like a butter chicken dinner after climbing Waiau Pass, or some coq au vin/beef bourginon to get you through the Motatapus. Alternatively, a Nelson-based producer sells smaller black packets of tasty freeze-dried dinners, but these are very hard to find – I only ever had one of them that I brought in an outdoor gear store in Wanaka.

Patrick doing a double dinner of Backcountry Cuisine

Dinner 2

New Zealand offers a wide array of flavoured tuna pouches that go well with noodles, couscous, quick rice, quinoa, lentils and instant pasta. My favourites were the Peri Peri and the Smokey Harissa. They have a couple of salmon varieties too!

I don’t generally like tuna, but some of my most satisfying meals were a tuna pouch mixed with couscous, some of Farrah’s taco spice, and cocktail olives – these are found in small yellow pouches in larger supermarkets.

Toby ate the same dinner every single day for 3000 km. One tuna packet + 2 instant noodle packets. I gave him the trailname “Basic”.

Snacks

NZ’s One Square Meal (OSM) bars/bites are a great favourite with hikers. They come in apricot, cranberry, almond vanilla and chocolate honey, the latter tastes like a crunchy chocolate cake. Like Clif bars, they have added vitamins. Tom & Luke’s raw balls are great! They come in a ton of varieties, but everyone agrees that the salted caramel ones are to die for, the strawberry macademia come in close second. I even brought some home with me… Buy them in packets or tubs, as long as you buy them! For the rest, go for your regular selection of nuts/dried fruits/energy bars/roasted chickpeas and chocolate.

Toby discovered Tom & Luke’s raw balls in Twizel

Happy trails, omnomnom!