The Cactus team have a real connection to Nepal and the Himalayas. Not from an aggressive "hey, lets go climb a mountain and earn bragging rights with all our yuppie mates" direction but simply because it's an incredible environment with some amazing people. It's simple and calm and serene and awesome and we all feel at peace (something increasingly rare these days) when we're there. 10 years ago (back in 2015), co-founder Ben & family first visited Nepal. This trip included trekking over the Cho La Pass and up to Everest Base Camp (EBC) - a perfect excuse to test some gear. &nbs ..read more

SUPERTROUSERS PUT TO THE TEST We thought it was about time that we brought you another epic Supertrouser tale. This time it's about Jimmy and his Trade Supertrousers. He's been working full time as a builder as well as renovating his own house in the evenings and weekends and has clocked up quite a few hours. The last few months have been full throttle and Jim worked out that he's been wearing his Supertrousers for 105 days straight so far (at least 12 hours a day). No weekend breaks or time for washing... he reckons they are starting to 'wear-in nicely' and 'aren't showing any signs of lettin ..read more

This is a great wee write up by Adam, Ranger/Project Manager of the Bream Head Conservation Trust. He's doing awesome work up there and we here at Cactus are proud to help out where we can. Cheers, Adam! Best gear for the job! I am very proud to announce a great sponsorship deal between BHCT and the New Zealand owned and operated outdoor equipment company known as Cactus. Those who know me will be well aware of my passion for this gear, it simply is the best gear for the type of work we do on Bream Head, full stop. Now, before you go thinking this is some type of marketing campaign I can tell ..read more

With busy lifestyles, full-time jobs, no more public holidays for a while, the microadventure concept can be a lifesaver. The idea behind a microadventure was made common by British adventurer and author Alastair Humphreys and is defined as an overnight outdoor adventure that is "small and achievable, for normal people with real lives". When planning a microadventure, key points to keep in mind is that it's short, simple, local, cheap – yet still fun, exciting, challenging, refreshing and rewarding. All of us here at Cactus are pretty good at microadventures - and with winter here, they become ..read more

Mike Rowe leading the way. Symphony on Skis By Mike Rowe The Symphony on Skis is renowned as New Zealand’s premier high glacier ski traverse, pioneered by Gottlieb Braun-Elwert and friends over 30 years ago, and had been on my list for many years. I, Mike Rowe, used to work for Gottlieb’s company as my first job after getting my mountain guide qualification so it had a more personal pull for me. I was heading down to Antarctica for my 5th season as a field training officer in October, so was stoked to see a good weather window pop up at just the right time, and easily convinced my brother, Dav ..read more

Gregory is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Chile. He recently purchased a Cactus Deepwinter pack which our wonderful machinists added ski slots on the side (based on the design of the Patrol Pack) to take on his work expeditions. Here's a short blurb about the super interesting and fun things he gets up to: My colleagues and I are interested in big earthquakes and the trouble these earthquakes cause. In places like Christchurch, geohazards like liquefaction was a big issue during the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, but in places like the Port Hills rock ..read more

Over our nearly 32-year tenure, we've been lucky to make a lot of friends and support people on some pretty incredible adventures. Whether it be Cactus puffers in Antarctica, Dreadnoughts on Everest or even Supertrousers in the Serengeti; we're lucky enough to have so many bloody awesome stories of people doing epic sh*t. There was also the time a guy rode around the world in record time, in a pair of Supershorts... Nearly ten years ago and through a friend-of-a-friend, we were introduced to Mat Goodman. Mat is a seriously talented cameraman, with a knack for nature photography and videography ..read more

Vaughan in his Cactus Trade Supershorts & Tee - automatic Builder cred. Vaughan and Anna are building an off the grid house in Governors Bay, Banks Peninsula and we think it's worth talking about. Not only are the views spectacular, but they've also made some great decisions on architecture, materials and building style. The house is going to be fully insulated with Maxraft floor slab and underfloor heating while the whole building will be insulated to 2.4 x the building code. The house is completely off-grid, powered with solar panels and batteries and the waste system is a vermiculture s ..read more

We're all about making good sh*t that lasts a long time. Not because we're on some eco-crusade or anything but simply because we don't particularly like shopping and would rather have our tools not get in the way of getting the job done. This was the way the world used to be but in recent years the world has got used to this bizarre hamster wheel of AliExpress, TradeMe, drop shopping, fast-fashion madness. Folks once upon a time used to get an endorphin hit by building something, nailing a new climbing pitch or getting a personal record for riding up ..read more

Let’s face it - every company out there racks its brains to think of good names for its products. We often chuckle at a tramping pack named after an iconic New Zealand mountain or route despite said pack being designed and made by people with zero connection to said name. We're simple folks here at Cactus so when we needed a daypack to add to the range, our primary task was to design something with bombproof fabric and bombproof construction. Naturally then this iconic bomb-proof, single-compartment Canvas wonder was named after... Bomb shelters. It seemed apt 25 years ago.  Why, yo ..read more