Westland/ Welcome Flat

Punakaiki Pancake Rocks

Black swan at Lake Rotoiti

We left Blenheim driving at the speed of light, which means when we finally stopped in Nelson Lakes National Park, it took Christina 306 seconds to hear my exclamation of "fuck yeah!"

We stopped at Lake Rotoiti just long enough to feel the sweet itch of the first sandfly bites in months, and under the circumstances, it was most welcome.  We continued southwest towards the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks on the west coast.  During hightide these rock-stack towers transform into massive blowholes, shooting saltwater dozens of meters in the air, and when you catch a good one, all over you.

Our destination, though, was the small town at Fox Glacier, from where we would depart the next morning for the Copland Track.  The Copland Track was one of the most explored alpine routes in New Zealand, following the Copland River about 24 kms deep into the mountains, where it then climbed up the Copland Pass, all the way to the west coast.  Avalanches, landslides, and other forces have all but destroyed the track, and adventure companies no longer even offer guided tours through the pass.  You can, however, still follow the river through the mountainous valley all the way to the start of the pass, where you are stopped by this season's avalanche!

Did we remember how to move with our backpacks on?  Or did the very fine Blenheim cuisine make us soft?  Christina quickly answered the question of who would trip and fall on the trail first (face first into a puddle), as well as the question of who would fall the following four times.  Overall though, neither of us suffered worse than a few scrapes and bruises re-discovering our tramping legs.

We made a three day tramp of it, spending both nights at the Welcome Flat Hut.  This was the true purpose of our trek - the terrific alpine scenery actually a surprise bonus.  For at Welcome Flats, just one hundred meters away from the hut, are three geothermal hot springs, the largest the size of a tennis court.  Each holds a different temperature (between 35-55 C, which I am told is 95-131 F), controlled by small channels of water flowing from the source.  Unlike the pools in the North Island that are heated by volcanic activity, these pools are heated by the collision of plates at the Alpine Fault.  Rainwater falls through cracks in the earth's surface, and the tectonic energy heats the rainwater, pushing it up towards the surface, where it soothes the tired legs and backs of trampers.  The pools bubble and steam, though not because they are boiling, but because gases (often smelly gases - the pools were discovered late in the 19th century and first described as "just stinky enough to be valuable") are escaping from underneath the earth's crust.

We soaked in the pools at night, the only two people there (there was a chorus of toads), under the clearest, moonless nighttime sky, the starlight of which was reflected by the snowy peaks that surrounded us.  Spectacular!

We spent the first and third days walking to and from Welcome Flat, and on our second morning we walked the difficult route into the mountains to Douglas Rock Hut.  We returned late that afternoon to Welcome Flat to find that a larger crowd and a layer of cloud had settled in.  The previous night was unrepeatable, but the water was still plenty warm.

We arrived back at Fox Glacier worn out and completely satisfied, awaiting the weather forecast to see if we ought to get more intimate with the glacier the next morning.

The Dutch boy next to me is writing a blog entry of his own: Glowworms, Booze, and Strippers.  I think I am doing this trip all wrong.