Backpacking New Zealand » Reviews

Alpkit Gourdon 20

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:41:16 +0000

The alpkit Gourdon 20 might be the ideal day pack. Its light, durable and cheap. But the main thing is that it is waterproof. Alpkit have taken a 20 litre dry bag and added a decent suspension system to it – padde shoulder straps along with a chest and waist strap. The bag also features 2 mesh pockets which will accomodate water bottles. a bungy system for securing extra clothing and a removable back pad / hydration pack area.

If you are unfamiliar with dry bags, you simply roll the top down 2-3 turns and clip the straps together. This style of bag is popular amongst divers and kayakers – they can usually stand total immersion and therefore should cope with New Zealand’s West Coast .

For £17.50 I feel this represents a bargain and totally beats the usual daysacks you see (like the integrated one on the ever popular karrimor rucksaks). Its around 600gm so could easily pack away inside your main pack as well.

Alpkit also do 25 and 30l versions, but these as yet do not have the mesh pockets and Bungee on them.

Its great to be able to walk around in the rain without worrying about cameras, phones etc etc.

Grab one here – Alpkit Gourdon 20

Nokia Phone Chargers

admin — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:08:55 +0000

Following on from yesterdays posts about keeping that iPod charged while you are away, I thought I would mention keeping your Nokia phone charged.

Not everyone seems to realise that there are 3 Nokia Chargers available for the vast majority of phones, and that these chargers differ quite a bit in power and weight.

ACP-7x
The ACP-7 is the older charger, a heavy square lump that was supplied with most older nokias – 5110, 3210 to name a couple. These are the heaviest, slowest and most common charger you will see. They are also the least ideal for travelling because of this. Its also fixed voltage, which means UK ones will work anywhere the mains is 240v – Europe, Oz, NZ etc, but NOT the USA.

Output: 3,7V/355mA

ACP-8x
The ACP-8x is nokias earlier lightweight travel charger, and was standard with newer and more expensive phones – eg the 6310 series. It supplies more current and a higher voltage, which can drop recharge times significantly – 4 hours to 2.5 hours on some phones. A neat feature is that you can remove the power cable, which has a velcro tie on it to keep it orgainised while travelling. It is also multi voltage, so works worldwide. All in all, a much better choice for travelling than the ACP-7x.

Its possible to buy this charger of internet sites for around £7 – eg at mobilefun ACP-8x.

Output 5.7V/500mA

ACP-12x
The ACP-12x is the newest charger, supplying more curent than the ACP-8x for charging the newer high capacity phones faster. It is also light, multi voltage but lacks the removeable power cable of the ACP-8x.

Its possible to buy this charger for £2! at Amazon.

Output 5.7V/800mA

I have had no problems mixing chargers, but it may be wise to see which travel charger nokia reccomends for your phone – find you phone on this page and look at the suggested enhancements.

Review: Gear4 Firepower World Tour iPod Charger

admin — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:28:37 +0000

The Gear4 Firepower World Tour iPod Charger (Formerly made by PodGear) is a worldwide mains charger for all dock connector iPods and and device that chages from USB.

It comes with plugs for The UK, Europe, The US and Austrailia / New Zealand, and works with 100-240v systems. Once the plugs are removed, it gives access to a standard figure 8 power input, so you can use this anywhere. Its also useful as most camera chargers come with a figure 8 lead, which will at least double the reach of the charger.

Beware of other versions of this that do not come with the Oz/NZ plug – liek the one sold by ipodworld.co.uk.

The device has worked flawlessly – it charges my Video iPod without complaint and seems well built. Its also pretty light to carry around.

I would get it here at Amazon