Back in November 2025, our family went on an amazing walk called the Copland Track to Welcome Flat. It was an 18km walk in (more like 21km) and there was a large hut at the end that could hold just under 40 people. Luckily our family got pretty good weather, apart from a couple of small rain showers while we were walking in. The amazing thing about this walk is that there are hot pools at the end, and they are completely natural.
We had a good nights sleep but my husband and I were determined to get up super early and go into the hot pools as the sun was rising. I mean how many of these chances do you actually get in life. We had about 20 minutes to ourselves, it was cold outside but in the water, so lovely and warm. Then a young man came along with his camera. We told him we were getting out so he would have the place to himself. I thought he was taking photos, but no, he was videoing himself and was a YouTuber just starting out. If you want to follow his channel it is Jaiden Journeys and he does very amazing videos about solo tramping, the feeling you get, processing your emotions while out on the tramp. He also captures the scenery so well and even talks to the odd kea.
We walked out of the tramp and Jaiden was not far away from us the whole time so we chatted several times and ended up following him on social media.
Anyway in January my daughter Maia asked if Jaiden could stay at our house as he was in Christchurch. I said, sure, and Jaiden came and slept in our caravan and then Django (Jmango) turned up as well and stayed with us (but that’s a whole other story).
Anyway we decided to have a day trip to Kaikoura, however it was the windiest day you could possibly get and on the way home we had at least one truck nearly sway towards us and nearly cause an accident. We showed Jaiden around our favourites spots in Kaikoura. It was hard for him to film with my husband, my son and myself nearby, plus Iris who we took for the ride.
Here are some photos of Jaiden trying to film a seal, the view from the Kaikoura lookout, on what must have been THE worst day I’ve been there for heat and wind, plus the view from the lovely walk from South Bay domain.
After we had done our walk we sat on our new section and looked at the view. It was very sheltered there from the NW wind and we were very surprised. We could see the wind whipping up the sea into clouds of mist down below, but we felt untouched due to the vegetation on the hill.
Enjoy the photos.
