Australia Gear Packing List

We’re just a few hours away from flying off for our first international tour of Autumn Gem! This evening we’ll be taking to the skies to head Down Under for eight screenings of Autumn Gem in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, Australia.

With a new trip comes new gear for travel! We’ve learned a lot from our two previous tours to the Midwest, East Coast and Southwest. Our current goal is to be able to bring one carry-on bag that can fit under the airplane seat! With that in mind, I’ve adjusted our gear list with the following new additions. Here’s a photo of mostly what I’m taking with me on the trip.

Clothing

I will be bringing just a minimum of clothes, even less so than on our last tour. I tested out bringing just two changes of clothes during Apple WWDC 2010 in June. Every night, I washed the next day’s outfit and hung it up to dry overnight. That worked out well, and I will do it again while in Australia.

As for Rae, she’s going to bring the Surge since the its extra pockets and compartment configuration suits her packing needs better than the REI Traverse backpack she’s been using to-date. While she packs a little more than me, she’s still a pretty light packer. Dragging her suitcase up the metro and train steps in Paris a few years ago cured her of any desire to take a ton of luggage on trips!

Ivar Revel G2 Backpack

Originally, my North Face Surge backpack was going to be my primary bag. One of the downsides to most backpacks is that items generally gravitate towards the bottom of the pack. Ivar backpacks have a built-in shelving system that allow for better organization and weight distribution of your items. I’ve had the Revel G2 for only a few weeks, but I’m already liking it better than the Surge. I’m able to place my camera, computer, iPad, clothes, cables, and DVDs easily in the Revel. With the Surge, I have to pull more things out to get to what I want. The Revel main compartment is not as flexible as the LowePro CompuTrekker AW I used on our second tour, but it’s much more comfortable to wear for long periods of time. I like the three mesh pockets on the outside, though I wish the large front mesh was more stretchy to accommodate larger objects. When the backpack is full, the mesh pocket is unable to expand much further. As a point of reference, the North Face Recon is better designed in that the front mesh pocket is much more stretchy.

Scottevest Essential Travel Jacket

To augment my carry-on capacity, I’m going to be sporting a Scottevest Essential Travel Jacket/Vest. I really wanted to buy the Tropical Jacket/Vest, but Scottevest doesn’t have a men’s size between small and medium. The women’s large, however, fits the sizing bill, but there’s no women’s version of the Tropical Jacket. So, it’s a large women’s Essential jacket for me! As with all Scottevest products, this jacket has a lot of pockets, one of which is big enough to hold my iPad sans case!

I’ve been following travel writer Rolf Pott’s journey around the world with only the Scottevest clothes on his back. I would love to do that, but we do have to bring DVDs and other screening-related materials on this trip. I was thinking about leaving the laptop behind and using the iPad or my iPhone 4 for running the Keynote presentation and video. I do want to blog and document the trip, however, and I will need a laptop for process photos. While the iPad can theoretically do this, in practice it’s a little unwieldy for complex tasks such as this.

Photography

I thought long and hard about leaving the 5D at home for this trip. I’m borrowing a Canon PowerShot G10, which Rae will be primarily using. It’s really nice, however, to travel lightly photographically speaking! Maybe one day I’ll add a Micro 4/3 camera or similar small body/big sensor camera to my photographic arsenal. I haven’t quite decided (I do have a few more hours, after all), but I’m thinking of taking the versatile (though so-so in image quality) 24-105 lens and a 50 macro. I had a great time using my circular polarizer at a wedding earlier this month, so I’ll be bringing that with me too.

Miscellany

Because we’re traveling overseas, my Verizon MiFi will be useless. So, I’m leaving the Bixnet battery and the MiFi at home, which will save me over a pound. I purchased a universal travel power adapter to work with Australia’s different plug format. A world voltage-compatible power strip will let us plug in all of our digital devices while on the road (two iPhones, iPad and laptop). We’re bringing a few DVDs with us as well, along with our AV cables, battery chargers, and water bottles.

I will post a complete field report once we’re back from the trip.