FEATURES Welcome Hut has lived up to the message in Bob Dylan’s song

Press, 13 December 1986, Page 26

FEATURES

Welcome Hut has lived up to the message in Bob Dylan’s song

The Under-Secretary for Conservation, Mr Phillip Woollaston, will fly up the Copland Valley by helicopter today and open an impressive, new 40-bunk hut at Welcome Flat. Considerably* spruced up, the original hut will stand beside the newcomer. NANCY CAWLEY looks back to its earliest days.

For more than 70 years the Welcome Flat Hut has sheltered mountain travellers going to and from the Copland Pass and enjoying the hot pools. One of them showed his gratitude by writing a line from a Bob Dylan song on the shabby door: “Come in, she said, I’ll give you shelter from the storm...”

Undoubtedly, the historic little South Westland refuge has a place in the affections of many. So the decision at the beginning of the year, by the Westland National Park, to preserve it for continued use when a new, larger hut was built, met widespread approval.

: Park staff have worked for eight months on the two huts, assisted for one week by the Army. According to Bruce Postil! the senior ranger at Fox Glacier and supervisor of the operation, the new hut was well overdue. With an average of 4000 bednights a year recorded at Welcome Flat, the old 16-bunk hut was inadequate. "We had nights there with 80 people,” he says. “They did their best to get into the hut, or under the bivvy rock.”

The early surveyor, Charlie Douglas, explored the Copland Valley in 1892 at the behest of the Government, hoping to find an all-weather tourist route across the Southern Alps that would be suitable for horses.

Although no horse ever crossed the Copland Pass, horses were used to transport both hut-build-ing materials and travellers as far as Welcome Flat in the early years. Much later, an air-strip was put in for deer recovery. Credit for the first crossing of the Copland Pass goes to Douglas’ young colleague, Arthur Harper, who made the crossing in 1895, a few weeks after the English climber, Edward Fitzgerald, and his Swiss guide, Mattias Zubriggen, crossed Fitzgerald Pass immediately to the south of Copland Pass.

"’Guided and amateur mountaineering was well under way in New Zealand by the time Government workers began construction of a track up the Copland Valley in 1910. They followed the line of a trail blazed by Douglas, and discovered the hot mineral pools at Welcome Flat in the process. With the earlier establishment of the Hermitage on the eastern side of the mountains, and the Fox and Franz Josef hotels on the west,

tourist interest in the area was assured. The first Welcome Flat Hut was built in 1913.

Today, the Copland . Pass Trip is regarded as a classic three or four day crossing of the Main Divide, and is often linked as a round trip to Graham Saddle at the head of the Franz Josef and Tasman Glaciers. Most commonly traversed from east to west, the 46km Copland Track takes the traveller under the shadow of Mount Cook in the Hooker Valley, over the permanent snow of the 2150 m Copland Pass, then down into the lush beauty of Westland. The summer-blooming alpine flowers of the upper Copland Valley and the rata of the lower reaches alone make the trip worthwhile.

It is stressed by both Westland and Mount Cook National Parks, in whose territories the track lies, that the Copland Pass is a serious alpine crossing, to be undertaken only by mountaineers or experienced trampers. Bruce Postill says he has little worry that installing a relatively luxurious hut will delude walkers into thinking a crossing of the Copland could be as cushy. ' “We are fortunate that Welcome Flat is at a low altitude (425 m and, although it is only a short two to three hour stage from there to Douglas Rock Hut,

the next stage to the crest of Copland Pass is a very long, energetic day. Few hitch-hikers want to go that far. “Every summer, the hut warden at Welcome Flat has problems with inexperienced or illequipped people wanting to cross the pass. They are monitored and usually turn back. We do our best to talk people out of doing something hazardous, but, if they insist, there is no way we can stop them.” Mr Postill adds that only 20 per cent of the many year-round visitors to the Copland Valley intend to cross the pass at its head. Eight per cent are content to take the six-hour walk into Welcome Flat and enjoy a soak in the pools, or at the most to walk on to Douglas Rock Hut.

National Park involvement with the Copland Valley is no recent thing. Soon after the formation of the Westland National Park in 1960, rangers from Arthur’s Pass, Fiordland, and Westland Parks converged on the Copland Valley to upgrade

a recreational facility that had suffered a falling-off of interest and activity after the Second World War. Over several weeks, the track was cleared and huts repaired. The building of this latest hut is evidence of a continuing interest and commitment on the part of the Westland National Park.

Traditionally, national park huts have been designed by park rangers. The new Welcome Flat Hut is a successful compromise. The exterior is the work of Ministry of Works and Devlopment architects in Christchurch, and the interior was designed by Westland National Park staff.

A mezzanine sleeping area has been built above a cooking/ sleeping area, with special regard for fire precautions. There are two upstairs fire escapes, downstairs exits, and extinguishers throughout the building.

“The hut contains 32 mattresses,” says Bruce Postill, “but because of the platform construction of the sleeping area, it should comfortably sleep 40-50.” The original three-roomed building will house the hut warden and provide extra emergency accommodation. It is joined to the new hut by a covered way. Timber replacements and improvements have transformed the old hut. Roof iron has been replaced, the eaves extended, and suitably-

styled small-paned windows fitted.

The partial dismantling of the old hut for removal showed that the walls had been constructed of three distinct layers — pitsawn totara weather-boards on the outside, then linoleum (no dwangs, only diagonal bracing), finished with canvas nailed to the studs. Sometime later, possibly in the 19605, the inside of the hut was lined with ply. There was general surprise among the work-party to find the framing was not pit-sawn timbers, like the outside sheathing, but was gauged timber. This must have come in up the track, possibly from the saw-mill that was operating at the time near the village of Fox Glacier. It was found necessary to replace only 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the original timbers — a surprisingly small amount when one considers the age of the hut and the difficult South Westland climate. All the totara portions were still in mint condition.