Rain, Rain and Shopping!

Life in Auckland has come to a regular lull of waking up to a to-do list a mile long in order to get organized for the big trek. I have since met up with Alex and we both are now camping out on the front lawn of the backpacker hostel here in Auckland. And, yes, we have permission.

Our frist night in the tent proved to be one of adventure. As it has been raining quite regularly here the ground was rather wet.... or marshy, if you will. The mud was aching to squish between our toes as we aimed to set up the beloved two-man yellow-top tent. As soon as we positioned our tent where we wanted it and went inside to set everything up, we noticed that wherever we put pressure on the bottom, water would seep up, creating a wet spot on the floor of the tent. Not exactly a good position to be in considering the entire point of the tent is to have a floor in order to prevent all items from getting wet and dirty. Fortunately for us, the hostel had a good supply of rubbish bags that we made use of by lining the bottom of the tent with them in order to prevent our items from getting wet.

That night proved to be a chilly one as it poured down rain and the ground was wet. Not to mention that we still had yet to receive our items from our sponsors which included things such as thermals and sleeping mats. We had to make due with what limited gear we had at the time. By the time morning came and I crawled from my sleeping bag, still bundled in everything I owned, and noticed that the outside of the tent also didn't appear to be waterproof. Though no water had actually started dripping inside, the entire outside of the tent was soaked from the rain. There was no beading of water going on there. Bummer.

First thing to do was call a local outdoor gear store here in Auckland. They said that they'd recommend spraying the tent with a waterproofer. Only downside was that there was no garantee of how long it would last. Given we are looking ahead to 5 months of trekking along a country known for excessive rainy conditions, we weren't thrilled of the idea of attempting to carry enough spray to douse the tent every couple months, weeks or even days. So onto plan B.

I called Canada.

Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), where the tent is from, was gracious enough to agree that the faulty waterproof function was something under the warranty which meant I could get a new one. But that also mean we'd have to send it back to Canada (paying for postage and putting ourselves out of a home) and hope that they would be able to send us back a new one in time for the trek (a month away). When I informed the employee that we needed it rather quickly she told me that they don't actually even have replacement tents for me to have as that specific tent won't be in stock until February 2011. Practically when we're done the trek. Instead she wrote a note on my account stating what had happened and that when I DO finally get back to Canada I can exchange it then.

In the meantime, we still had to figure out what to do with the tent.

The whole purpose of me sending the tent to this side of the world was to avoid the situation of having to buy a new one here. They aren't exactly cheap here and those that are are not up to the conditions of being used for 5 months straight across a country. So we put our heads together and attempted to think only happy thoughts as we set off to see if we could get a tent worth $800, but more withn our budget range.

Fortunately for us, the employees at Macpac (our newest sponsor) came through with a tent sale they had on and had the perfect one for us. With a 10000mm floor coating, 2-person, 2 door and within our budget, it checked off all the boxes we had in mind. We only had to wait until the weekend to get it. We hoped that our current tent would hold up to the challenge.

That challenge averted, yesterday we set out bright and early to be there when the stores opened, armed with none other than a list and money. It was our official shopping day. We spent the day going through each outdoor gear store, trying on things, writing down prices, sizing things up and discussing with the staff our best possible option for each item. We wanted to get the best deal on our gear. Each store we went into at Newmarket we met the best staff ever and everyone was more than happy to help us out. After a much needed lunch we went back through the stores to pick up each of the items we figured would be best suited to our needs. Much thanks to Kathmandu, Macpac, Bivouac and Mountain Designs for all your help in the process as we couldn't have done it without you!!

And now we wait. Wait for our gear from the sponsors to come through. Wait for the rain to go away. Wait for the new tent. Wait for the days to come to do our first aid training. Wait for magazine articles to come out. Wait.

And while we are waiting, it has come time to sort out exactly where Te Araroa Trail will lead us. To sort out food drops and map options. To sort out where to do our trial trek. Sure, we have a month left, but with all we have to do it is going to fly by and before we know it we will be starting the trek of a lifetime!! Needless to say, we can't wait! As such, check out our new promotional video that will be used at Indigo Foundation's upcoming fundraising event in October: