Hitchin and Hikin: Copland Bound

starting the treck
see all photos »

So after we were dropped off by our first hitched ride we checked into the hostel, unloaded our gear and ate a very backpackery dinner: rice and beer…with some raw broccoli thrown in. We began to make some plans for a tramp Hamish had told us about: the Copland track. Was exciting just to think about getting on a trail again. The next day we headed to DOC to sort out hiking but found that it was only open like 3 days of the week or something like that. Wel, we chatted with the dude at the hostel and he agreed to let us work for our accommodation that morning for the next night’s stay and advised us to just ‘go ahead’ on the track. Sooo for the time we raced around making beds, vacuuming and killing bacteria (of which I’m sure there is a multitude at any backpackers). We laughed our way through it, but the hostel manager said it all: ‘same shiit…different day’. we then had the rest of the day to chill out: read, write postcards, check emails etc in the wee town that is Fox Glacier village. And by wee I mean you stand at one end of town and can wave to your friend at the other end…or walk about 5 minutes and say hello to them. Tiny. As for the tramp, we thought…well…why not…risk getting a bed and not quite knowing what the official weather report was (this track is prone to flooding…conveniently a river that is about 5 minutes from the hut…could be a slight problem….eh…let’s just go and hope for the best). Another fun issue. Neither of us has a camper stove so instead we made a huge vat of rice to take with. Unfortunately my incredible tupper ware container that has travelled along like a dear friend for all of my journey went mysteriously missing somewhere between punakaiki and fox. sooo…we were forced to buy a 2 litre tub of ice cream. Forced! And of course forced to eat it’s contents. What else would we put the rice in! it was a tramping necessity. Anyway…all the ice cream here uses super artificial flavors and we discovered that they just never satisfy…which actually makes you keep eating the damn stuff cause you’re never satisfied! They’ve got it all worked out here, those evil ice cream cronies. We made a nice mess of all our gear to sort out what we’d take and what we’d leave at the hostel to retrieve later. Now…transportation…hitching worked before…you have the sign? Right…let’s do it. And I’m not lying when I say we had literally hit the main road and about 2 minutes later a station wagon pulled right over! Sweet! Two kiwi trampers that had just come off a serious 5 day tramp…each of the days at about 10-12 hours…we added our packs to the stack of gear, pushed aside the hiking maps and hopped in for the ride. One of the guys had been working overseas but couldn’t stand his job anymore and had returned to live off his earned money and stay mostly in the NZ bush doing tramping. Really cool guys. When they dropped us off there were two weary trampers hoping to catch a ride…we swapped places, thanked the guys and took heed of their warning to “keep moving because otherwise the sandflies would eat us alive”. And off we bounced down to the start of the trail singing Eye of the Tiger. And yes…the sandflies already had nasty tidings to share…to our hopeless defeat, they glommed onto our skin and into our warm blood with the thoughtless type of savage brutality that only those little creatures have perfected so well (yes…I am talking about a fly…come to NZ and you will experience the suffering!).

ahhh...the muddiness that awaits on the copland
see all photos »

The beginning of the track greeted us with one of the two infamous stream crossings. And did I mention that the sky was forecasting rain…or rather a downpour. Well…it wasn’t raining yet and the cross wasn’t bad at all. Just took a bit of extra surveying, jumping and teamwork (!)…and the inevitable acceptance that our feet would get WET…mine were soaked already…nothing like sloshing around in your boots for a 7 hour hike! But when you’re moving at least your feet stay warm…like a cozy little bathtub in there. and since I wasn’t getting any dryer, might as well tramp right through the waters and mush! The trail took us winding through the rainforest, over much rocky terrain and exposed roots…not to mention the miles of mud and muck. Apparently this track is notorious for being quite wet. and we experienced the Copland track showing its true character! We eventually moved out of the covered forest area and alongside the rushing river, a pale, silty blue. It was raining at this point and we clambered laboriously over the rocks, mossy boulders and gray sand that matched the color of the sky. When we finally reached the trail of solid earthy ground I was happy to be on less cumbersome ground. The rain stopped after a couple of hours and it was just glorious to be walking along the track…eyes carefully surveying the next spot to place my foot and avoid a tumble, but my mind was off in other places. No better place to be than surrounded by the beautiful and peaceful solitude of the NZ bush. I don’t know how many streams, creeks and river-like flows of water we crossed over as we trekked up to the Welcome Flats, past the Pick and Shovel Flat, across the memorable “unnamed creek” (don’t they realize they have in fact named the “unnamed”?!) and over many sketchy swing-bridges. Another challenge was avoiding the “hook grass” which should actually be termed “tear all the hair off your legs grass”. And though feeling a bit damp, I haven’t mentioned that what awaited us at the hut was more than any tramper could dream of…natural hot springs! The cold, the rain, the sandflies…none mattered because soon we’d be jumping into a bubbling, silty pool of water rising out of the earth!

the rain begins
see all photos »

Pretty soon we arrived at the second infamous stream crossing and once again, no worries. By this time we had caught up to a few other trampers, a kiwi family with two young kids…we all navigated across and hiked up to the Welcome Flat hut…melanie and i hoping there would be space. Sure enough, we were very “welcome” here! the hut warden (a hot pools obsessor who travelled all over the states finding her beloved natural bath tubs!) said that only the weekend before the place had been packed, but today there were only 9 of us in total. 3 of the people were from the states, Vermont to be specific, and the girl around my age had friends at Hamilton and was even close with a girl on my hockey team! Woooah. (and as a side note…about a month later…Sam, the guy who I worked with here in te anau, from Vermont as well…ran into them when he hiked the kepler track! What are the chances…crazy world). But of course the first thing to do was take off our drenched socks and shoes and let our squishy feet feel the air. And right behind on the agenda was checking out the hot springs! We quickly stripped the wet clothing, grabbed our towels and pranced up to four steaming, colourful pools of natural hot spring goodness that awaited us. The water comes up from the ground at around 130 C…hot indeed! of course it’s cooler in the pools but not much! I practically burned my entire body as I dove down in an attempt to evade the sandflies. so awesome lying in the mushy green silt, this natural hot tub while staring up and out at the misty mountains that surrounded. Wow….this was just incredible. Couldn’t stay for too long or you begin to cook yourself. Cook. Mmm..dinner awaits. Time for some cold rice! Haha. anything tastes good after trekking and after we settled in our sleeping bags and began to play cards. Well…more like attempted to play cards…we got as far as Go Fish and realized that both of us were in the category of people who everyone else always has to re-explain card game rules to. Haha. A long day brought an early bed time anyway.

lovely sights along the way
see all photos »

Woke up the next day feeling like my shoulders had carried a car…forgot what it’s like to have a pack on my back for long hours. For our second day we hoped to trek up to another hut that would provide great views of the valley below and glaciers hovering among the mountains and then back down to our current hut. Unfortunately a heavy downpour was forecasted and once again…yet another infamous stream could prevent us from getting back to the hut. But for now the skies were only misty so we headed out for day hike to get as far as we could. Had a nice “cruizy day” as the kiwi mum termed it…2 hours just walking along the valley…the stream was already a bit flooded to cross but we still got nice views of a couple of glaciers and it was just good to be moving about outside. Some sunshine even peaked through. Almost right after we returned to the hut the “torrential downpour” began…we made a good decision to not try and cross that stream. And because the rain still sat on all of the plants from the previous day we had completely soaked ourselves again…I think I took every ounce of moisture off those overgrown tussocks…had to wring out my shorts several times. But a perfect excuse to jump in the thermal pools again! Pretty cool sitting in there the rain trickling down around you. Back at the hut there was no better place or time to take a nap in your sleeping bag.

hut time
see all photos »

The last day of our little tramp was back the way we came. But that’s alright because going a different direction provides a completely different perspective. And it was a beautiful, sunny day. Amazing how that changed the whole feel of the trail. Before we knew it we were back to civilization and airing our damp feet in the warm day’s sun on the side of the road, thumbs out and trying not too look too filthy. Just another great day in New Zealand…and when you’re tramping…you really feel part of it.