Moving into another mountain range

You may have recently heard of the wilding pine problems around the country. Unfortunately the Molesworth has a fair dosing of this problem, there's a few dotted around the flatlands but once you get into the highcountry it becomes more apparent in areas. Some of these infections are from past windbreaks, some are from the neighbouring Leatham and some are seeding from...

At a very early stage is Birdcage Hut, with the first heavy base layers laid down and the initial details emerging.
Situated towards the head of the Cass River near Lake Tekapo Birdcage Hut is nestled against the Haszard Ridge on the valley floor at just under 1100 metres above sea level.
This hut is a derelict one...

After this latest snow dump we feel so lucky to have spent time just before it immersing ourselves in the Molesworth. Access in winter can be a challenge, snow and ice on the passes and we just heard that the rivers in Rainbow got blown out after the last rain/snow storm I imagine these are impassable now as they get gauged out very quickly.
It's very cool to see others just as passionate about the area as us - when we turned up it made me laugh to see another ute had skis in the back (although they had biked in) nothing was going to stop them going in! It would have been a very long...