Hiking, Traveling New Zealand with KSO Trek FiveFingers (and Sprints)

My husband and I had the privilege of taking a vacation to New Zealand this December with another couple for our honeymoon. We got married this past June, and decided to make our trip a memorable one.

I had purchased the KSO Treks earlier this year specifically for the trip – and they are far and away my favorite and most comfortable pair of five fingers. They did wonderfully for all of the hiking we did on various tracks (hiking paths) in New Zealand. They stood up well on the beaches, and were great for the rocky paths that could be found all over the island. It was nice to have a bit of extra thickness on the soles for all the hiking, and the leather stood up well to the water and dried quickly. I had a lot of fun climbing all over boulders along beaches and really appreciated the way the sole on the Treks grabbed the rocks. I think they did better than a smooth soled pair would have in those conditions.

I am so glad I brought them with me. I wore them almost the entire trip (except for a couple of outings in my Sprints [FiveFingers]), and never had any issues with blisters. I find that if I walk too much in my Sprints, I end up with blisters right at the base of my toes. The KSO Treks don’t give me that problem. I also find they develop the dreaded ‘stink’ a little more slowly than the non-leather varieties, but even so, by the end of the trip, they were badly in need of a dip in the washing machine.

[FiveFingers are] packable, versatile, and best of all, a great talking point. I got the chance to share with one of our hostesses about the shoes and why I wore them, and even had the fun of walking down the street in Christchurch and having a teenage boy blurt out, what the- are those…shoes?! I smiled and said ‘yup!’ and could hear him talking to the man he was sitting next to about them as I continued down the street.

Respectfully submitted by Jen K. — Minnesota