Hiking to Welcome Flat Hut with Kids // Copland Track - West Coast New Zealand
Hiking to Welcome Flat Hut with Kids
Copland Track
west coast of new zealand
For more information on this trip, including an excellent safety video produced by the Mountain Safety Council, click here. Our Welcome Flat film is linked below!
We’d been building up to this trip for sometime! Although it’s an easy gradient for most of the way, it’s LONG. Especially for little legs. 18km with a pack is a HUGE ask of any kid (not to mention adult). Heather and I had been assessing the kids’ endurance on the previous few tramps and we were confident that they’d built up sufficient strength, but more importantly a resilient mindset, to take on this challenge…& boy, did they what!
This trip is simply EPIC. I’m beginning to hate that word as it’s overused but there really is no other word to describe the Copland Valley.
It’s BIG. It’s WILD. It’s WONDERFUL.
If you’re taking kids, here’s some tips:
Stay 2 nights! It’s a massive walk so reward your kids with an extra day to recover, play and enjoy the hot pools!
Leave early. We were not slow, but it still took us 9 hours in (incl short breaks) and 8.5 hours back. Imagine doing all that, then having to leave first thing the next day…see bullet point above ⬆️
If you cannot cross the first river at the carpark (Rough Creek) - ABANDON the trip. This is a steadfast, clearcut rule and having seen the terrain - it’s wise to adhere to this, especially with kids.
Book the Sierra Room! This is the old DOC quarters and has 4 bunks, a hot shower, gas stove and pot belly fire. It’s warm, it’s comfortable and it’s private. It was a real bonus being able to rinse all the sand and hot pool muck off before getting into our sleeping bags!
Try going either end of the busy season. It’s a VERY popular hut. However, we chose to do it at the beginning of August. Yes, it was a bit colder but there was only a handful of others in the hut and more importantly WAY LESS SANDFLIES!
