GALLERY
Our track for this trip. Day 1 Bush Stream Carpark to Crooked Spur Hut. Day 2 Crooked Spur Hut to Stone Hut. Day 3 Stone Hut to Forest Stream Carpark.
Wednesday came around and brought with it an amazing looking forecast for the next four days. Dulkara had a look at her schedule and decided she could take all of Friday and Thursday afternoon off so we started planning a trip with two friends of ours, Ben and Sarah. We settled on a two night tramp in the Two Thumbs Range. Thursday morning I packed gear and food and that afternoon we drove to meet Ben and Sarah at the Bush Stream Carpark. The next morning after a short car shuffle we set off up the river bed.
It was pretty standard kiwi tramping up the creek bed. Which meant a creek crossing about every 500 meters. Dulkara has fully indoctrinated me to the Kiwi method of committing to soaked footwear, however Ben and Sarah cling to northern hemisphere methods of keeping dry feet. This of course made for lots of good natured ribbing both ways – but as we hiked up to the hut at the end of the day I think we were all a bit jealous of Sarah’s still dry feet.
Ben acknowledging his birthday in the chilly evening alpine air. 
Sarah on the climb out of the Bush Stream Drainage.
The tramp in to Crooked Spur Hut was straight forward and would be real easy to do with skis on the packs. We’d thought about bringing touring kit with us but abandoned the idea due to suspected slim coverage in the hills. The hike up the creek bed had us second guessing our decision but when we were able to inspect the snow the next day we decided we made the right choice. We got to the hut early in the afternoon and had a lazy evening celebrating Ben’s birthday.
We passed the evening telling stories and playing Hearts. Dulkara handily won despite it being her first time! We’d scavenged some firewood and so had something to stave off the cold evening air for a while. But once we let the fire go out we were reminded it is indeed winter, and appropriately cold out. The call of sleeping bags become untenable to resist and we retired each to our own dreamscapes.
Since we had very little ground to cover to get to our next hut we had a lazy morning waiting for the sun to come over the hills. After thoroughly warming up we set off up the hill to head in the direction of Stone Hut. The day time temps where a stark contrast to the night with sweltering temperatures in the sun.
Ben was excited to at least get to play in the snow a little on his birthday. After reaching the saddle after the initial climb up from Crooked Spur Hut, we parted ways for the afternoon as both groups went in different directions. Ben and Sarah climbed an unnamed peak near Mt. Pattisson and Dulkara and I moseyed up to the summit of Crooked Spur.
Ramen and kumara mash on the top of Crooked Spur. 
Lovely ridge line walking down Crooked Spur towards Stone Hut.
We had a quick snack on the summit of Crooked Spur before heading down the ridge line and eventually dropping back into the valley and getting back onto the Bush Stream Track. We saw lots of Tahr through this area but I didn’t get any good pictures.
We made it to Stone Hut that evening shortly after the sun had dipped behind the peaks. As soon as the sun went down temps dropped rapidly and we were happy to discover a ready supply of firewood at the hut. Ben and Sarah showed up some time later and we had another lovely hut evening eating tasty food and enjoying time with one another.
The highlight of the morning was finding that a baby Tahr was hanging out around the hut. It was clearly a bit cold and stiff after the night but we watched it warm up in the morning sun and go about it’s daily business.
We had intended to follow the track to Bullock Bow Saddle that day, but decided to instead gain the top of the ridge line directly next to the hut and follow it along and down to the saddle. So we started the day out with a near one thousand meter climb.
As we enjoyed an early lunch on the top of the ridge line we decided we’d made the right choice as we had firm snow and rolling ridge line as far as we could see. Snow coverage was pretty good off the south east side of the ridge and I took note of several chutes it would be fun to come back for when things fill in a bit more. At this point Dulkara and I were painfully aware of the fact we’d have to drive back to Mt. Cook that night and still had a long ways to go back to the car. We decided to split up with Ben and Sarah again to allow us to push out a bit faster.
The ridge walking was as good as we’d hoped with firm snow and panoramic views. Perhaps someone who knows about geology can tell me what’s going on with the rock in this picture above?
We made good time out and down to Forest Stream where things turned into a bit of a slog, but we continued to make good time. It was funny to have two relaxed pace days before and then finish with a death march to race the darkness back to the road. We made it just as the light changed to headlamp necessary status. From there we drove back up the road to grab the van then parked it at the outlet of the track for Ben and Sarah. Then we smashed the drive into Geraldine, got some Indian takeaway food and drove back to Mt. Cook. We got home tired, smelly, and dirty, but happy and satisfied.
GALLERY
