Sit down, tuck in your microfibre towel napkin, grab a spork & allow your culinary senses to be sizzled by the wonder of science with New Zealand hiking food. As the sign to every outdoor wilderness diner should proclaim: Well what do you expect for 175g?
Freeze-dried meals were discovered by the French back in the early 1900s, who promptly decided to suck all the taste out of them, market them to unsuspecting backpackers and went back to their Michelin star restaurants for some real food.
Spoiler alert: Freeze-dried tramping food, once cooked up, mostly look like a pile of sick outside the pub the morning after. However, when your pack reaches something that feels like double your own body weight, a freeze dried ‘Lamb Risotto with wild mushrooms’ sounds almost indulgent and it squishes in the front pocket. Sold!.
Here in Kiwi land, options are limited to around four brands – our US cousins have dozens to choose from but after filling up on freeze dried meals for research purposes, I have come to one significant yet bold conclusion: They pretty much all taste the same.
However, you’re here, you’re reading this with SOME expectation that you’ll find the answer to which one is the best and you’re leaving for the New Zealand wilderness soon so do you go for the Teriyaki Chicken or Lamb Roast?
Backcountry Cuisine
They come from Invercargill where the food literally must freeze dry itself in New Zealand’s southern-most city. Back Country Foods make this popular line of green bags that dominate retailer shelves in the adventure and outdoor market for hiking food. The video on their website portrays a healthy bunch of Kiwi 20-somethings setting out for a day of hiking.
Life is good & at the end of the day, they find the hut & settle down for some good wholesome fun (probably a game of gin rummy), maybe the fire is already stoked with their smelly wet boots sizzling beside it and a grimy grey sports bras hanging overhead desperately trying to dry. The peace de resistance, a bowl of ‘fast nourishing food for adventurers’ says the tagline.
Honey Soy Chicken – 2 Serve $13.98 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you find yourself licking the inside of the packet/bowl post meal then turning to an unknown hut dweller to do the same maybe you should go it alone for a 2 pack with this 175g serve.
Husband and I pad out these two serves with a soup entree followed by desert of Gingernuts & chocolate. Plus as insurance, we take cheap red wine in a bladder which numbs the senses just enough that you don’t notice the food! Also, the more you drink, the lighter your pack is the next day so it’s a win win.
This hiking food meal had taste and a saucey texture we liked. There were veges in there, meat rectangles and after pouring boiling water in it and popping off to find hand sanitiser buried at the bottom of the pack (10 minutes) – it magically turned into a hearty dinner for two. Our favourites in the Backcountry range tend to be the classics. Roast beef & veges, roast chicken, roast lamb. They come with the mash as well.
Gluten Free Berry Smoothie – 1 Serve $3.99 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Out of the smoothies we tried, this was the best – price and taste. Just add cold water for 85g of creamy ice cream and real fruit. Well, it’s pink and it’s got taste. Our advice, add a bit more water as it’s quite sweet but it does have that smoothie feel & taste and timed perfectly as an afternoon pick-me-up when you’re a few hours off hut arrival and sick of trail mix.
Absolute Wilderness
Based in Nelson, these guys are the new kids on the block. Andy & Grant McDonald started the company in 2012 because they wanted to create great tasting food for outdoor adventurers. I had heard good things about their hiking food from fellow trampers so went in search of their product.
Stockists are relatively thin on the ground in the North Island so I ordered online and my freeze dried pack of goodness arrived in a few days with a lovely handwritten message from the owners welcoming my feedback. Ok, you asked for it and here it is.
Bacon & Eggs – 1 Serve $14.95 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Did not disappoint. Liked it better than Back Country’s Cooked Breakfast. For those who haven’t sampled freeze-dried bacon & eggs – it doesn’t come all separated out like the fair you get for a Sunday brunch on Ponsonby Road. This version is all mashed together, however it’s hot & quick when you’re trying to pull down a tent, pack and get the hell out of dodge by 8am for a long day of hiking. Just 10 minutes to cook (unfreeze).
Slosh it back with instant black coffee and you really feel like you’ve hit the big time at the backcountry breakfast buffet. Of course, if cost is your issue – it doesn’t really compare to it’s Backcountry Cuisine competition. They charge $13.98 for a two serve cooked breakfast that’s 175g. So more beef bang for your buck.
Banana Smoothie – 1 Serve $8.95 ⭐️⭐️
Slightly thicker smoothie texture than the Backcountry Cuisine, which was nice. However, it’s a lot more expensive and you get less at 40g. So does the taste make it worth it? Well, no…it’s very very sweet. We had to water this one down a lot more than was recommended and then you loose the smoothie texture.
Tom Kha Gai – 1 Serve $14.95 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
It sounded pretty good – again with the zesty. This time Thai chicken, coconut and vegetable curry on rice. Felt a bit rice and carb heavy but definitely a decent portion for one. I was missing the sauces and moisture that came with the Back Country Cuisine meals as it was a little gluggy and dry.
Chicken pieces were sparse but unlike the Back Country and Gourmet Food company varieties, I actually felt like I was eating chicken chunks and not rectangle pieces. Reviews on the Absolute Wilderness website reviewers mostly gave this dish a five star rating with just one person saying it was “awful’ – which is a bit harsh.
Mocha Rice Pudding (with coconut yoghurt added by author)
Mocha Rice Pudding– 1 Serve $14.95 ⭐️⭐️
This sounded divine and I was pretty excited to try it. Caveat – not a massive rice pudding fan but it won be over with mocha in the title and I’m a sucker for anything sweet plus it has Whitakers chocolate.
It was a bit tasteless and I really wanted to love it. I was hoping it would become my go-to pudding du jour every time I set out for a multi-day hike. Alas it did not hit the mark for me. Portion was huge for one – I’d say spread across two of you.
Go Native
These guys are Wellington-based and according to their website are a group of Kiwis who are ‘driven by a passion for active exploration’. They vehemently stress on their site that their meals are NOT, repeat NOT dehydrated. They are simple pouches that you simply put into boiling water but are still great as hiking food.
I ordered off the website (via another website) and it took a couple of weeks to eventually get to me – granted they did alert me to the fact they had fresh stock coming in but even then it took a couple of emails to chase up when the food would finally arrive.
They’re much heavier than their freeze dried rivals, obviously and if you want rice or carbs with these you will have to whip that up separately but the taste is fantastic!
Butter Chicken – 1 Serve $12.99 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Delicious – could have served this up at home and no one would have even realised that it was hikers food. And you know what? I did serve it up at home and no one noticed. We use a Jetboil system that allows for boiling water only and these pouches would not fit into our current cooking unit.
The taste of this and portion size was far superior to any of the freeze dried meals but then it is a boil in a bag. If taste outweighs the weight then I’d go with this every time. Only downside is that if you want rice or a carb with it then that comes separate. They do a Chilli Con Carne, Chicken Italiano as well as vegetable curry that sound just as good.
24 Hour Food Pack 
Beef Casserole 
Inside the food pack
24 Hour Food Pack – 1 Serve $29.95 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Like the name says, this pack is going to give you a day’s worth of grub – from breakfast through to dinner. Would I buy one for a multi-day hike?Unlikely.
First off, you’d have to break it down as most of your packing involves a bit of squishing and squashing to fill gaps in your bag to get everything in there. This full day system includes coffee sachet, museli, tuna and crackers, small fruit bar, beef jerky, Beef Casserole, freeze dried mash potato.
We’ve fine-tuned our hiking food across back country tramps to revolve around getting as much out of a roll of salami or cheese slices with wraps or crackers and I have very particular packing systems to get it all into our packs. Not sure this pack would work for us – a lot of extra packaging too.
The beef casserole and mash were delicious, lots of veges and like the butter chicken pouch above, it’s boiled in the bag in two minutes. If you are on a day or two day hike or not sharing with fellow hiking companions this food pack could work perfectly. It’s definitely not the cheaper option if you are cost/food sharing with others. Liked the back of the paper wraparound had some games on it for you play.
The Outdoor Gourmet Company
Sharp black packaging and using the word gourmet drew me to this brand back when I first started hiking. I hung up the Backcountry Cuisine and felt like I was going upmarket. I was wrong.
This brand has never really blown my skirt up – it just kinda sorta lacks taste. It sits side by side with Backcountry Cuisine in most retail outlets in New Zealand & they’re made in the same Southland factory.
Wild Mushrooms & Lamb Risotto – 2 Serve $15.99 ⭐️⭐️
Once again the best part of this freeze-dried meal is the name. It falls a bit flat after that. Weren’t many lamb pieces and it felt pretty rice heavy & therefore gluggy.
On the plus side, there is plenty of food in this pack (190g) for two people with a bit more in it than the Back Country Cuisine versions (175g) for two people.
