As fresh parents, everything is still very new to us but we thought that we’d done enough reading and short trips that it was time to tackle the first wee tramp with our little man.
We parked in Kaituna Valley car park. We chucked our son into the Moby Wrap, stuffed all the important things plus a few kilos of useless stuff (all those “just in case” things) into our backpack, and off we went to follow the Kaituna Valley Packhorse Hut Track. The first 5 minutes were amazing, then Elk (our son’s trail name, I don’t really want to share his name or face publicly) woke up and started his hungry wiggle, signaling that he wouldn’t allow us to continue unless we fed him. Oh boy. So we spent the next 40 minutes sitting on the grass feeding our little man. We changed him and then he started looking like he was willing to give us a chance again. We changed him, put him back in the Moby Wrap and this time we made it all the way to Packhorse Hut in one go! He was just so calm and happy! The only thing was that Anna got really hot with him in the front carrier, it’s like having a personal heater attached to your body. She also regretted that she didn’t have an umbrella which would have been perfect sun protection for both of them as his sunhat made him pretty hot and didn’t always protect the side of his face.
At Packhorse Hut, we fed him, changed him, took some photos and started to descend back to our car. This time we didn’t stop even once. Back in the car we put ELK into his car seat and started driving back, which was a wee bit silly to be honest. I think he really needed a break, to have some food and maybe even some nappy free time just to stretch a bit. We ended up stopping on the way by the road and Anna breastfed him for half an hour before we could continue back home.
Things learned:
- Take it easy, take it slow, change and feed the baby before you go.
- Take 1-2 layers less than you’d wear at the carpark if you have a baby in the front carrier.
- Try it before you do it. We did a lot of walking around our neighborhood and Anna did the Bridle path before we felt ready for something like Packhorse hut.
Participants: Michal, Anna, Elk
Rough stats: 7 km, 400m up
Tramped on 28th December 2020
Max elevation: 452 m
Min elevation: 21 m
Hi Michael! Looking for campsites with tarns is a great idea! We did Faust tarns when Anna was 3 months pregnant so it’d be fun to go back there with our little Elk 🙂 Great to see that we’re not the only weirdos with babies out there. See you in the mountains mate!
Great job Michal with the wee one – gee its so nice to see that we are not the only ones who are taking their new borns tramping. Our wee Reuben started off as young as yours front pack etc.. at 8 weeks going to Trig M then we built up from half day to full day then to overnighters (lewis pass – up to the tarns), kelly’s range, tarns before mid-hill, faust tarns, Staces tarn, Dog Hill range etc… we basically relooked at all our tramping at searched for tarns off the routes. The umbrella in those early days is a godsend esp when you are half way up and they need to feed. We would strap it to out hiking pole and then lodge it into the groung for immediate shelter. Reuben (now 2yrs 3mnths) absoultely LOVES tramping now esp the wind and trees and rocks – So keep going – : )