Preparing for disaster

I am off to do the Tongariro Crossing in 2 weeks time. I don’t think it will be overly tricky but I have been stocking up on a bit of kit so I am fully prepared.

Since I have a near unshakeable belief that all of New Zealand is a death trap (a mix of reading the papers and having witnessed a tragic accident early in my stay here), I reckoned it would do no harm to have a basic first aid kit in my back pack.

Obviously you really don’t want to lug around a whole lot on the off chance something happens. I was hoping for something lightweight with a few bits and pieces to patch up until professional help arrives or you go to it.

Doing a quick online shop around, the candidates I found were:

1. Wellington Free Ambulance first aid kits here. The personal first aid kit was the right size and price ($15.00), but it really only has a bandage and a few plasters. Hardly worth it.
2. NZ Red Cross has a similar range of kits, but their portable kit, while quite comprehensive, looks a little on the bulky side. Unfortunately the don’t mention size or weight so I decided not to risk it. At $50 it seemed a little steep also. The inclusion of an accident blanket would have been handy for my tramping usage though.
3. Triple One Care were my next port of call. Their range of first aid kits looks quite broad. Unfortunately their online shop is a bit bung (pretty basic oscommerce site), and their shop items didn’t carry a description, so I had to jump between pdf documents with the content listing in their main site, and their online shop. Their “Compact Survival” kit seemed to be what I was after though – basic first aid items, survival blanket and in a handy small package. At $17.90 (including postage), a pretty good bargain too, so that is the one I went for.

It arrived today, just a day after ordering. It is just as light and compact as I had hoped and fits nice and neatly into my backpack.

Of course today I was browsing through torpedo7.co.nz and spotted a way cooler piece of kit: Lifeline ultimate survivor in a bottle – a bit more expensive but some great bits and pieces in it, though maybe not enough first aid gear.

One of the reviews on that site reminded me of something I forget quite often – it is not just out tramping you might need a survival kit as I do live in a city located on an earthquake fault line.

I better stock up on canned food too then…