We rose early to the sound of knocking on our camper-van window, by a lovely ranger, given we had failed to show our "tickeroonie" on the windscreen notifying him that we had paid online. Due to the infestation of sand-flies that ensued, we decided to head to the start of the walking track in the hope that it was a better spot for a cooked breackie. Unfortunately the next place was no better, so had to scrap the bacon sarnie plan in favour of muesli (blurgh).

Fuelled and super eager to get moving, we managed to miss a key sign at the start of the walk and headed off in the wrong direction. 2.5km later and nearly back at the car park we finally realised and retracted out steps. The Copland track up to the Welcome Hut was well defined with excellent scenery throughout. Though more challenging than expected, the mixture of sub-alpine bush, ice-cold fast flowing rivers and grassy plains kept us well entertained. After 23km,the hot pools and the impeccable hut more than compensated for our efforts. Joe even got to play with our new camp stove and dry pack food :-)