Thread: Hunting, painting, and a spot of perving.

Many years ago I went into the Copland (Welcome Flat..with those lovely hot pools).
Loved the place...just back in NZ after a year in Vietnam and an Army mate and I just wanted peace, perfect peace. We both left the Army at the same time and needed to unwind.
A couple of years later, and I'm in the NZ Fire Service where one of my workmates was a bloke (Peter) who made his real living as an artist (Fireman's pay was pretty poor...still is).
I told him about the Copland and we made a plan to go. Another workmate was a 'sort of' hunter and came in too.
Walked in to the hut, and started to get sorted.
In walked a young German couple...and she was a sweetie! Absolutely lovely.
There were 2 bedrooms but they decided to stay near the pools under the bivvy rock (must have thought we looked dodgy).
So, we had our evening meal and time to get a bucket of hot water from the pools. Down I go and round the corner to the pools and 'full frontal' presents itself.
Yes, the wee lovely was knee deep in the pool, body front on to me but looking back over her shoulder to the mountains above.
Well, after a wee while (time goes slowly at moments like this) I went back to the hut with an empty bucket.
Told the other 2 that I had just had a full frontal!
'Sort of' grabbed the bucket and rushed off, to come back in a few minutes and he had seen the same view as I had.
No water...again...so Pete grabs the bucket and heads down.
Comes back in a couple of minutes and called us a pair of lying bastards. No girl, no full frontal, zip, nada.
Bugger, she must have gone back to the bivvy rock.
Now, we still had no hot water so I go back to the pool and as I reach the edge to dip the bucket in there is a sweet wee face looking up at me.
She had sat down in the pool and was hidden from view by the raised pool edge.
So...we had a wee chat, I filled my bucket, and went back to the hut.
Told Pete he was bloody blind, but he didn't go back to the pool. Was quite convinced I was telling tales again.
He must have forgiven me, as he did a lovely painting as a wedding gift some years later when I met/married the Missus (48 years ago).
Anyway, if you have never been to Welcome Flat then you should make the effort and go.
There is (was?) an airstrip on the Flat so can fly in if you don't want to walk (about 12 miles in if I remember correctly).
Look across the river from the swing bridge and slightly to the left and there's a good wee stream bed to follow up to the higher area.
Easy travel, rock hopping and reach some patches of ice where the Chamois like to sit on a hot day.
I shot 1 Chamois on each trip in there.
Plus another workmate went in after we told him of our adventures and he shot a Tahr on the track up to Douglas Rock.
Take a camera...it's lovely country...and you will see why I went there with my old Army mate.

Great yarn

We all spend far too much time at work

And not enough time out hunting

https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-re...come-flat-hut/

This is a new hut as the old 2 bedroom hut was wiped out by a landslide (!).
The creek is the Sparkling Creek where I shot a Chamois on each trip.

If you dont mind grey kiwi would you tell us what regiment you were in when you served in Vietnam? and what you did there.

I, like many people am quite interested in the Vietnam conflict. Read a lot about it and what happened there.

I'm also very proud of people like you that served there. I'm also disgusted with how poorly vets were treated upon their return to NZ.

My grandfather served in Crete in ww2. He somehow got left behind when the allies pulled out and lived with the partisans for 18 months before the Germans were pushed out of Crete.

No drama if you don't want to share. Sometimes, people just want to let things lie from the past. I know I do.

@tac a1 no problems...I was in 161 Battery, NZ Artillery.
Spent 6 months with the Battery (Battery Surveyor), and 6 months with an Aussie Regiment (6RAR...I think)...out in the bush with the FPO party.
The Oz infantry guys were a good bunch to work with.
Yes, my father served in Egypt, Greece, etc. He may have known your grandfather!

Went there with a guy a few years back, the pools were quite shallow so we dug a couple of deep holes to lay in against the bank.

A hot chick came along topless with her arms around her breasts, she saw us with water up to our necks so waded out thinking it would get deep but realized the pool was only shin deep so she just lowered her arms and stood in the middle of the pool.

Good eye candy

Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi

Many years ago I went into the Copland (Welcome Flat..with those lovely hot pools).
Loved the place...just back in NZ after a year in Vietnam and an Army mate and I just wanted peace, perfect peace. We both left the Army at the same time and needed to unwind.
A couple of years later, and I'm in the NZ Fire Service where one of my workmates was a bloke (Peter) who made his real living as an artist (Fireman's pay was pretty poor...still is).
I told him about the Copland and we made a plan to go. Another workmate was a 'sort of' hunter and came in too.
Walked in to the hut, and started to get sorted.
In walked a young German couple...and she was a sweetie! Absolutely lovely.
There were 2 bedrooms but they decided to stay near the pools under the bivvy rock (must have thought we looked dodgy).
So, we had our evening meal and time to get a bucket of hot water from the pools. Down I go and round the corner to the pools and 'full frontal' presents itself.
Yes, the wee lovely was knee deep in the pool, body front on to me but looking back over her shoulder to the mountains above.
Well, after a wee while (time goes slowly at moments like this) I went back to the hut with an empty bucket.
Told the other 2 that I had just had a full frontal!
'Sort of' grabbed the bucket and rushed off, to come back in a few minutes and he had seen the same view as I had.
No water...again...so Pete grabs the bucket and heads down.
Comes back in a couple of minutes and called us a pair of lying bastards. No girl, no full frontal, zip, nada.
Bugger, she must have gone back to the bivvy rock.
Now, we still had no hot water so I go back to the pool and as I reach the edge to dip the bucket in there is a sweet wee face looking up at me.
She had sat down in the pool and was hidden from view by the raised pool edge.
So...we had a wee chat, I filled my bucket, and went back to the hut.
Told Pete he was bloody blind, but he didn't go back to the pool. Was quite convinced I was telling tales again.
He must have forgiven me, as he did a lovely painting as a wedding gift some years later when I met/married the Missus (48 years ago).
Anyway, if you have never been to Welcome Flat then you should make the effort and go.
There is (was?) an airstrip on the Flat so can fly in if you don't want to walk (about 12 miles in if I remember correctly).
Look across the river from the swing bridge and slightly to the left and there's a good wee stream bed to follow up to the higher area.
Easy travel, rock hopping and reach some patches of ice where the Chamois like to sit on a hot day.
I shot 1 Chamois on each trip in there.
Plus another workmate went in after we told him of our adventures and he shot a Tahr on the track up to Douglas Rock.
Take a camera...it's lovely country...and you will see why I went there with my old Army mate.

The Germans are like that: was attached to a Brit Armoured Engineer Regiment in Germany back in 94. During the summer (stinking hot) we would head off to the local swimming holes (usually retired quarrys that had filled up with water, and had sand trucked in to make beaches).
Only about 25% of the Germans wore any bathing gear. Man there were some honey's, but also there were those that were honey's 50 years ago, all basking like beached whales. we always joked that Greenpeace would pop along soon and start pouring buckets of water over them and wrap them in wet towels

I was lying on a beach in Spain with a lovely topless blond sitting above me. My wife grabbed the camera and took a photo, alas only got me, I’ve asked time and again, what was the point

Originally Posted by 7mm Rem Mag

Went there with a guy a few years back, the pools were quite shallow so we dug a couple of deep holes to lay in against the bank.

A hot chick came along topless with her arms around her breasts, she saw us with water up to our necks so waded out thinking it would get deep but realized the pool was only shin deep so she just lowered her arms and stood in the middle of the pool.

Good eye candy

Back in my time the pools (3 of them) were deep enough to sit in with water up to your neck.
Hot water came out of the ground at 50C, and was channeled through the pools so that the last pool was the coolest (but still damn near 50C anyway).

Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi

Back in my time the pools (3 of them) were deep enough to sit in with water up to your neck.
Hot water came out of the ground at 50C, and was channeled through the pools so that the last pool was the coolest (but still damn near 50C anyway).

That would have been pretty cool, they were very shallow when we were there

Might have to go to the copland next year April/May maybe a bit late for tourist season

Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi

@tac a1 no problems...I was in 161 Battery, NZ Artillery.
Spent 6 months with the Battery (Battery Surveyor), and 6 months with an Aussie Regiment (6RAR...I think)...out in the bush with the FPO party.
The Oz infantry guys were a good bunch to work with.
Yes, my father served in Egypt, Greece, etc. He may have known your grandfather!

Yeah, he probably would have. Grand Pa got sent home not long after Crete was recovered by the allies.

I used to work with a guy from 161 battery. He was from Waihi. I cant remember his name atm. It will come to me.

I should add a wee extra to the story.
On my first trip in there with my Army mate we were getting our gear sorted near to nightfall (in October) as we were heading home next day, when we heard a small plane flying over.
It came and landed on the Welcome Flat and about 10 minutes later 2 guys walked in.
They had come to check out the hut and were happy that we were heading out in the morning as they had loaded the plane with food and booze for the weekend...and there were a couple of girls back in Franz waiting for them to come back to take them in. The plane was a wee Auster (I think) so couldn't carry all the gear and 4 people at a time.
Anyway, the guys unloaded all their gear and booze and went back to the plane for the pilot to go pick up the girls.
Now it's quite chilly in there in October...frosty even...and the damn plane wouldn't start!
They tried and tried until too dark to do anything.
Two guys looking for a horny weekend had all their plans go awry.
We were about 1/2 way out next morning by 10am and finally heard the plane flying back down the valley.
Don't know if the girls would still be waiting for them though.

Yep that place offers a variety of adventures. Was one of my favourite spots to visit for that variety when i was single. One trip I found myself surrounded by 8 fully naked american college girls who were intent on getting back to nature. I thought it could not get much better when up walks an incredibly good looking English girl in a bikini who gos to hop in the pool with us. Suddenly one of the American girls says in a sharp tone to her, what are you doing? English girl stops in her tracks, a question on her face. American girls says, you only get in here naked!
Oh says the other, a look of relief coming over her face and quick as she strips off and jumps in too.

Another cool experience was showing up back at the hut with a chamois on my back that id shot with my bow. Two Austian guys walk up to talk and almost straight away let me know they are from the village where the Chamois were captured, and that the village still hasn't forgotten as it ruined thier hunting for some time. The end result was I gave them half the chamois meat as "partial payment" and they went off promising to tell thier family back at village about how much value they are too us.

Originally Posted by tac a1

Yeah, he probably would have. Grand Pa got sent home not long after Crete was recovered by the allies.

I used to work with a guy from 161 battery. He was from Waihi. I cant remember his name atm. It will come to me.

Brian ...........still thinking about it. He was the S/Sgt at the Waihi Police Station