Rations from the Lake Daniell Trip in May

 ...food for an overnight tramping trip...

I'm going to take a look at the 24 hour bagged ration I took with me when I visited Manson Nichols Hut back in May. Once you start spending a night out camping or in a hut your food planning needs to get a bit more elaborate and this is the way I do things. 

Eating my lunch at Manson Nichols Hut at Lake Daniell

I like to bag my tramping food into 24 hour rations as I find this the easiest way to control my food usage while giving me an easy to handle all in one package. All of the items are put into a large sized Ziploc bag and then placed in my yellow food bag. Each ration holds all of the food, drinks, accessories and ancillary items I need to survive for 24 hours. 

The 24 hour ration I took to Manson Nichols Hut

The rations I took on the Heaphy Track in 2021

The food on this trip was dictated by two things. Firstly I had a number of  about to expire freeze dried meals in my tramping food supplies. I had to use them by the end of June 2022 so I used freeze dried packets for all the main meals on this trip. 

My cooking gear at the hut...MSR Windburner stove

Using freeze dried meals meant I could use my MSR Windburner stove as the meals only require hot water to added to them. The Windburner is best used to heat water so it was ideal...the 1 liter pot is enough for a freeze dry meal and a hot drink. 

Breaking down my 24 hour ration:

Let's take a look at the breakdown of all of the items I carried in my 24 hour ration pack.As I said all the main meals were freeze dried. I had one for lunch, dinner and breakfast on day two. Normally I use a mixture of freeze dried, dehydrated and fresh meals so it is uncommon for me to use freeze dry for every meal. 

My 24 hour ration as taken to Manson Nichols Hut

My 24 hour ration contained the following freeze dried meals:

Day1: Lunch

Backcountry Cuisine (BCC) Cooked Breakfast (1 serve)

Day 1: Dinner

BCC Spaghetti Bolognaise (2 serve)

Day 2: Breakfast

BCC Apple Pie (2 serve)

In addition the ration pack contains a number of other items, these were:

Knorr (Chicken Noodle) simmer soup, steak bar (for breakfast), snacks for the next day, Earl Grey tea with sweetener, accessory pack and a pot scrubber. 

Freeze dried main meals, soup, accessory pack, snacks and tea

The accessory pack is in a smaller Ziploc bag. It is universal across rations and always has:

Salt/pepper sachets, sugar sachets, 6x Aquatabs, 2x 3 in 1 Coffee sachets, Raro/Vitafresh sachet, a Cup -O - Soup, 3x plastic freezer bags.

 In addition I had a powdered Apple Cider sachet (bloody delicious!!!) I brought from an American food supplier based in Auckland. I have a limited supply of these so they don't go on every trip. The freezer bags are used for trash, cutlery storage or some other use. 

Accessory pack: salt/pepper, Aquatabs, sugar, soup, drink powders, coffee

I always carry an emergency supply of food with me on any tramp and in this instance I had a BCC Lamb Fettuccine, some instant oats, a cup of soup and some snacks all carried in a separate bag. This food was not used by me on this trip as it was there in case I found myself stuck and unable to get back to the car. 

Emergency food items I took to Manson Nichols Hut

My hot beverage of choice is Chanui Earl Grey tea and I took an ample supply of tea bags as I knew I would be spending a lot of time in the hut and would probably want a few mugs of tea. Normally I carry 4 tea bags per day with a couple of extras just in case they are needed. 

...I carried plenty of Earl Grey tea and sweetener...

Here are some better quality images of the freeze dried meals I carried on this trip including the Cooked Breakfast, Spaghetti Bolognaise and Apple Pie all made by Backcountry Cuisine...

BCC Cooked Breakfast: front

BBC Cooked Breakfast: nutritional information

BCC Apple Pie: front

BBC Apple Pie: nutritional information

BCC Spaghetti Bolognaise:front

BBC Spaghetti Bolognaise: nutritional information

All of these meals simply require hot water to be added and then left to rehydrate for 10-15 minutes before consumption

Eating my rations at the hut:

Here are some photos of me preparing the meals at Manson Nichols Hut and eating them. I had the hut to myself on the day so I spread myself out a bit wider than I would normally do...

Preparing my lunch at a rainy Manson Nichols Hut

Backcountry Cuisine Cooked Breakfast

For dinner I had the Knorr soup which I prepared on the now blazing woodburner. There were some pots and pans at Manson Nichols Hut so I used one of them. My main was the BCC Spaghetti Bolognaise...

Knorr Chicken Noodle simmer soup on the boil

My dinner gear set up at one of the tables

Time to eat my dinner at Manson Nichols Hut

I usually have instant oats for breakfast, cereal with dried milk or instant Grits but I decided to take an almost expired Apple Pie dessert instead. I have used these for breakfast in the past and they are really good. I paired it with a Jack Link's steak bar as the Apple Pie had little to no protein in it. You need the protein for sustained energy release...

Preparing the Apple Pie for breakfast

Organising your food into a DIY 24 hour ration has a number of advantages with control of food intake and ease of packing being the most obvious. It is not always the lightest option with all the accessories I carry. You can easily get by with some snacks and a couple of meals chucked into a bag and thrown in your pack. My method is probably too elaborate for most people but I have been using it for over 20 years and it works for me.

NZ Bush Adventure YouTube vlogs you might find useful: 

Backcountry Apple Pie

Backcountry Cooked Breakfast

DIY 24 hour ration packs