We had a pretty terrible experience at the Copland Track in late January.

As a bit of background, we are both big hikers and have done a lot of better hikes in New Zealand like Mueller Hut (1 day), Abel Tasman Coastal Track, Routeburn, etc.

As most reviewers have said, the Copland Track hike itself is long, muddy, and requires a bit of scrambling. This was actually the most fun aspect of it. The hike to Welcome Flat is long and monotonous. It's the same forest view for miles and miles. You have a brief moment where you're trekking beside the river which is fun. There are also 2 nice barbed wire bridges that are wobbly and exciting. But these two exciting moments only combine for about 1 hour of an otherwise boring 6 hour hike (one way).

Once you get to the hot springs, you will find that they are infested with.. you guessed it.. sandflies! Even if you put on deet or other bug spray, expect to get 30 new bites on your face or any other parts of your body that are exposed above the hot springs. There were about 10 people in the Welcome Flat Hut while we were there, and we only saw about 5 people in the hot springs including ourselves. Of the 5, we stayed in for around 15-20 minutes because of how horrible the sandflies are. Maybe it would have been better if we wore one of those bug net hats or held one of those candles with our hands while in the hot springs.

Before you go on this hike, think about it: do I want to spend 14 hours of my life and acquire 30 new sandfly bites to hang out in hot springs for 20 minutes? There are much better overnight hikes and day hikes in New Zealand where the actual hiking is fun and the scenery is beautiful.

Oh if you're staying in the Welcome Flat Hut, hang your food up or else you will be woken up in the middle of the night by the resident mice.

Reviewed almost 8 years ago