I had no idea where to start really, but I knew I wanted something. I decided to buy the Pocket Survival Pak from Adventure Medical Kits (yes, the one designed by Doug Ritter). This gave me an immediately useful and complete kit, and I have spent many happy hours repacking it into an Altoids-sized tin and adding other stuff. I have found lots of web pages with other suggestions, and it is much easier to take someone else's list and modify it than start with a blank sheet of paper and ask "what would I need?". So I have put together a BOB for myself and my wife, an earthquake kit with water etc. outside the house, and the car has a crate with some gear in it too. I am hoping I never need any of it, but in New Zealand we are subject to floods, earthquakes and Tsunami, and even going for a hike it's all too easy to end up in a pretty remote places without realising there really *is* no-one around for miles.

If nothing else, having a kit has made me more relaxed insofar that if something *should* happen I can start thinking about which part of the kit will help, rather than panicking because I have nothing.

A