Pack weight for a three-night tramp, worked line by line

Base weight, in three honest columns

Base weight is the pack, the shelter, the sleep system, the cooking kit and the clothing you are carrying rather than wearing. Everything else is consumable. Writing it out in three columns — light, mid and heavy — shows where the kilograms actually sit, and it is rarely where people assume.

The clothing line is the surprise. At 1200 g in the light column and 2800 g in the heavy one, carried clothing is the second largest item in both, behind the pack itself in the heavy column and ahead of the sleeping bag in all three. The second fleece is a heavier decision than the tent choice.

The totals come out at 4700 g, 7000 g and 10,800 g. Those are not aspirational targets; they are what the same list weighs in three plausible specifications, and the difference between them is 6.1 kg carried over every stage of the walk.

Food and water are a rate, not a choice

Food for a four-day trip at 700 g a day is 2.8 kg, and that rate is fairly stable across people because it is driven by energy density rather than appetite. Dehydrated meals buy the lowest weight per calorie and cost an example $12 to $16 each; fresh food is cheaper and heavier, and the difference across four days is roughly a kilogram.

Water is the most variable line and the one people over-carry. One litre is one kilogram. On a track with regular streams, 1 litre carried between sources is enough, and the total load figures below assume exactly that. On a dry tops traverse it can be 3 litres and 3 kg, which changes the sum more than any equipment upgrade.

Adding 2.8 kg of food and 1 kg of water to the three base weights gives total loads of 8.5 kg, 10.8 kg and 14.6 kg. For a 70 kg tramper that is 12%, 15% and 21% of body weight.

What a hut-based Great Walk removes from the list

DOC's hut categories page describes Great Walks huts as having mattresses, water supply, toilets, hand washing facilities and heating with fuel available, and notes they may have solar lighting, cooking facilities with fuel and a hut warden. That changes the packing list, not just the comfort.

The tent comes out first. On the mid column that is 1400 g, taking the base weight from 7000 g to 5600 g and the total from 10.8 kg to 9.4 kg — a 13% reduction for one decision. Where the hut has cooking facilities with fuel, the stove, pot and fuel line of 600 g can come out as well, but 'may have' is doing real work in that sentence, so confirm it for the specific hut before leaving the stove at home.

The mat is the other candidate. Great Walks huts have mattresses, so a 600 g mat is redundant there. Between the tent and the mat the mid-weight tramper is 2 kg lighter on a Great Walk than on the same trip camping, which is a fifth of the load.

1. Confirm the hut category for every night of the trip before packing
2. Great Walks huts have mattresses, so the sleeping mat can usually stay home
3. Great Walks huts have a water supply, so carry 1 litre between sources rather than a day's worth
4. Leave the tent only where every night is booked in a hut, not where one night is a campsite
5. Keep the stove unless the specific hut is confirmed to have cooking facilities with fuel

What the weight means on the day

DOC gives the Milford Track's four stages as 5 km in 1 to 1.5 hours, 17.5 km in about 6 hours, 13 km in 6 to 7 hours and 18 km in 5.5 to 6 hours — 53.5 km in total. The second and third days are where a 6.1 kg difference between the light and heavy columns is actually felt, because both are six hours or more.

That is the honest case for spending money on weight: it buys hours of comfort, not kilometres of speed. On a 6 hour day the difference between 8.5 kg and 14.6 kg shows up in how you feel at the hut, not in your arrival time.

It is also the case for not spending money. The cheapest 2 kg on this list is the tent and the mat on a hut-based Great Walk, followed by the second fleece, followed by the two extra litres of water nobody needed. None of those three costs anything at all.

One caution about buying light. Consumer Protection New Zealand states that under the Consumer Guarantees Act products must be safe, durable, free from defects and last a reasonable time, and that the Act cannot be contracted out of. Durability is judged against the price and the description, so a pack sold as a multi-day tramping pack is held to a multi-day standard whatever its weight, and a seam that fails in the first season is a claim rather than a lesson.

Before you buy

• Write out base weight by item before buying anything, and total the three categories
• Add food at your own daily rate multiplied by the days, not the nights
• Decide the water carry from the track's streams, and remember one litre is one kilogram
• Divide the total by your own body weight to get a figure you can compare between trips
• Confirm the hut category for every night before deciding to leave the tent or mat
• Split shared gear between people by body weight rather than by item
• Weigh the loaded pack on bathroom scales at home using the subtraction method

Questions readers ask

Is there a right pack weight as a share of body weight?

There is no figure set by a New Zealand authority, and the percentages in the table above are presented as a way to compare trampers of different sizes rather than as a limit. What the column does show is that the same kit is a materially different load for a 55 kg tramper and a 90 kg one, which is why shared gear should be split by body weight rather than by item count.

How do two people split shared gear fairly?

By mass against body weight, not by object. If the tent is 2.8 kg total and one tramper is 55 kg against the other's 85 kg, a 40 to 60 split by weight gives 1.1 kg and 1.7 kg, which lands both at a similar share of body weight. Splitting the tent into inner and fly makes that easy to do physically.

Does a lighter pack mean a less comfortable pack?

Below about 1,100 g most packs lose the frame, which transfers load to the shoulders rather than the hips. That is comfortable at 8 kg and unpleasant at 14 kg. The useful rule is to pick the pack after the rest of the list, because a frameless pack is a good decision only if the base weight already fits inside it.

How much water should I carry on a New Zealand track?

One litre between sources on a bush track with regular streams, which is the assumption behind the totals in this guide. On an exposed tops traverse with no reliable water it can be three litres and three kilograms, which is a larger change to the load than any gear purchase in the base weight table.

Is a 700 g a day food rate realistic?

It is a planning rate that works for most three to four day trips using a mix of dehydrated dinners and dense snacks. Longer trips push it down as people get more disciplined about packaging, and cold-weather trips push it up. For a four-day walk it gives 2.8 kg, which is the figure used in every total above.

Sources

1. Department of Conservation — Milford Track, Fiordland National Park (3 nights and 4 days one way; stages of 5 km, 17.5 km, 13 km and 18 km with times of 1 to 1.5 hours, about 6 hours, 6 to 7 hours and 5.5 to 6 hours) — checked 2026-11-03
2. Department of Conservation — hut categories, facilities and fees (Great Walks huts have mattresses, water supply, toilets, hand washing facilities and heating with fuel available, and may have cooking facilities with fuel) — checked 2026-11-03
3. Consumer Protection New Zealand — the Consumer Guarantees Act (products must be safe, durable, free from defects and last a reasonable time; the Act cannot be contracted out of) — checked 2026-11-03