11th Hour

It's just occurred to me that it's the school holidays. Which is great and all, but I've got the car (mostly) packed to head down and do a short overnighter on the Copland to Welcome Flat Hut and back, leaving early on the morrow. Just how popular is this track? DOC site says it's pretty popular, which, during school hols, leads me to believe it's gonna be crawling with kidlets. I just wanna go a few hours' drive from Greymouth, hike out to a hut where there won't be too many peeps, and just chill with a flagon of woobala, hopefully with the chance to try and learn my brand spankin' uke for the first time. WF appealed because I heard the hotsprings rock, but now I'm not so sure. I'm leaving about 5 or 6 in the am, so not sure if anyone will see this in time to reply. I'll check just before I leave, and make a call. I've been a bit quiet in the last few weeks, because I copped a crappola cold, and to top it off, blew an eardrum. Which sucks. HARD. 10 years as a submariner, 16 as a scuba diver, and no grade 5 barotrauma. But no. Come to NZ, and psuedoephedrine is SO taboo, that I can't even get a script for it off a nurse (yes, I know the doctor has to sign it, but she fills it out) who I know personally, who actually knows my medically-trained background. Which means I've just come across the first thing that blows about NZ (other than petrol prices). Average - or even medically-trained - citizens taking it in the bot-bot because dopeheads turn pseudo into "P" (or speed, as it's called back in Oz). Anyway, I digress. Any insight into Copland/WF in the next 8 or 9 hours would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.