Vacuum sealed high sustenance meal packs
I don’t know about you, but I often get in the situation of wanting to stay at a camp [or beach] for another day but I haven’t provisioned for it. I have to leave cos’ I’ve run out of food.

This is not the primary reason Greg and Sheila Fowlie came up with the concept of Trek’n’Tramp meal packs, but they are absolute gold for this.
Greg and Sheila’s goal is to provide trampers and hikers with a 24 hour food pack. It’s kind of like a My Food Bag for the active Kiwi. Their target market is absolutely the recreational tamper that wants to do one of the big walks or even do an overnighter. But their light weight and compact size makes them invaluable for campers too, they stow away very easily, are in a watertight bag and have a very long shelf life.

Trek’n’Tramp are advertising in The Recreational Society and they did send us some meal packs to do a post on the product. If the product was a bit crap we did have the option to not review them, or simply feature the existence of the product. However this is not the case at all, the Trek’n’Tramp meal packs are thoughtfully curated and quite frankly, fricken tasty as.

This is not an unboxing feature, but the first impression opening up the 24 hour pack is ‘whoa- that’s a lot of food!’ and ‘ohhh there’s a lot of treats!’. Prior to opening the pack there was an assumption that just breakfast, lunch and dinners were provided. Not at all, the packs have the three main meals, morning tea and arvo tea plus dessert covered. Juice [Raro], tea, coffee and milo included. There’s milk powder, salt, pepper and sugar included. As corny as it reads, you just add water. The servings and food is generous because it is aimed at those big days of high energy output.

Bringing it back to campers, you don’t need a fridge, you don’t need a stove or pots and pans. All you need is a jug to boil water. You don’t even need a bowl or plate, the Back Country sachets double as bowls with and extra tear line [see the photos]. Trek’n’Tramp offer 6 24 hour meal packs ready to go at $49.00 each. They also offer customised packs via a simple form on their website. First impressions could be that it is pretty expensive, but it’s inclusive of everything, treats, snacks and mains. If you bought this much food from a dairy or on the road as you went through the day it would cost more.

This review was done over a 24 hour period, dinner first, then breakfast and finishing with lunch. Being in the camper that’s how it happened. I suspect that would be a very typical way a camper would use the Trek’n’Tramp packs. The roast lamb and mashed potato was the option chosen in this review because it seemed like the hardest to pull off. I mean, how can a freeze dried meal possibly resemble Sunday Roast right!? Preparing the meals is ridiculously simple. Boil some water, open the bag at the top tear line, add the prescribed amount the water, that’s even indexed on the side of the bags, stir, stir a lot. Then leave sealed up for 10-15 minutes. That’s it, add hot water, stir, leave.
The roast lamb sachet also had the mashed potato sachet inside it. It was the same procedure, add hot water stir and leave. As mentioned earlier you don’t even need a plate or bowl to serve to, the sachets have a second tear line so you can turn them into a bowl. I’m in a camper, I’m not an animal, I served mine up onto a civilised plate [and bowl for breakfast]. The roast lamb meal does not look like a traditional Sunday Roast. There is not neatly sliced lamb sat next to the minted peas and carrots drizzled in gravy. It’s a roast lamb stew with a side of mash. It is delicious, I mean food always tastes better outdoors, that aside, it was shockingly good. Halfway through I was starting to rationalise how and why every camper trip aren’t Trek’n’Tramp days. The point being there is absolutely no compromise on taste. It was a big hearty serving; the meal with 500ml total water added was over 700 grams. It was more than enough, I didn’t back it up with the included blueberry turnover dessert, wasn’t hungry.
The breakfast was the cooked breakfast with smoked beef, eggs, hash browns and tomato. As with the dinner this isn’t traditional looking meal with every ingredient separated. It’s a breakfast stew- the best bubble and squeak you’ll ever have. Another hearty portion with 500ml of water and 175gm dry weight of food. I used a breakfast/dessert bowl [as pictured] and there was too much for the deep bowl. I was definitely reminding myself that these meal packs were tailored for the big days of high energy output. There’s no pretending this is the most pretty breakfast option ever presented. What it lacks in looks, once more it exceeds in flavour. I could taste the hash browns and the meat bits were tender. It would set you up well for a big day out amongst it.
Lunch, this was the pepperoni closed sandwich. It was the one meal that I felt lived down to my expectations of long-life food. It wasn’t terrible in any way, but after after the tasty big breakfast and then the OSM energy bar and a Whittakers chocolate bar I wasn’t hungry. I still had another OSM bar, a chocolate bar, the beef jerky strip and the milo sachets….ohhh and the blueberry turnover to get me through the remaining 6 of the 24 hours. They were saved.
If I was doing the Pinnacles or the next trip into Molesworth Station, the Trek’n’Tramp meal packs are now a no brainer. They completely remove that part of the planning from the trip. So easy to carry in your pack, and in my opinion actually quite luxurious. From a surfer/camper point of view I have a pack stowed in the camper for the next surf mish… I know what I’m eating!
Check out the Trek’n’Tramp range on their website HERE