Welcome Flat

A week ago I ventured to the West Coast with 22 enthusiastic trampers to do the Copland track and stay at the welcome flat hut with it's very own natural hot pools. This involved driving for 7 hours and then walking 20km each way and I enjoyed every moment of this lengthy adventure.

We knew this would be an eventful trip after the drive up included one of our drivers/organisers getting pulled over by the police for forgetting to turn lights on. We were fortunate that instead of a fine he got a suggestion of where to go for hiking (Travel advice by your friendly neighbourhood policeman). 

This happened when we stopped in this small town to grab a quick bite to eat or a drink. We ended up going to this pub since it was past 10pm and not much was open. There we somehow got roped into singing Karaoke much to the excitement of the locals. After singing our third song it was time to leave, I imagine they would have probably had us singing all night if that wasn't the case. But we followed our last songs advice and walked with our boots onward.

We got to our campsite at 1am noisily set up our tents (got asked the next day if we heard the rude people come in the middle of the night and being very loud...oops). Had an early wake-up call by a couple of very loud birds (still need to find out what they're called...).

The walk was great, many sights all appearing as the foggy clouds retreated opening up the wonderful views. Had to stop every few minutes for photos or to listen to (and speak with) the birds. Didn't even need princess powers to call them over, there were plenty, Tui, Fantails, Weka... Some followed us to eat up the bugs from the disturbed soil that resulted from us treading the path.

Had to cross some memorable footbridges on this track, nothing better to cross a very high wobbly bridge above river rapids to get that adrenalin pumping (booth for it being kinda scary when you look down and being so incredibly beautiful when you look to the sides).

After a long walk, we finally reached the hut...and hot pools! Was great, we all sat in one (the first arrivals had tested to find that the others were too hot or cold and settled in the one that was just right). We were there for 2-3 hours before coming back to the hut where the others had started preparing an amazing dinner for all :) Yum, yum.

The next day was a bit different. The benefit of going back the same way is that you can safely leave the camera alone and just enjoy the views without the urge to take photos (kinda regret not getting any of the birds though...). We also stayed in a bigger group instead of splitting up as the day before. This was nice as it gave a chance to talk to more people all of which on this trip were awesome and I hope to see on future trips.

We got greeted at the car park with the soundtrack of pitch perfect played by the people who had walked the track faster. I'm sure I wasn't the only one with songs from that CD in my head the whole ride back :P