Mate,
I shot the same area and stayed in the same hut about 10 years ago. It was my first trip into the West Coast. Mate the country was soo steep I reackon I was in shock for the first hour or two after the chopper left. However, I did manage to get around a bit, climbed up the falls (it's in the background of one of the photos) to the lake located up stream from the hut on the true right. What a climb!! Bloody unbelievable. Went up to the glacier, even walked on it, bloody enbelievable trip.
Didn't see any Thar but I shot 2 Chamois (one just over 10 inches)up above the hut and down river. And my mate shot another at the bottom of the moran wall just off the track leading from the river to the hut (In the bloody river bed).

I also read some where that that hut was or is rated as the most dangerous DOC hut in NZ?? When you look out the window straight up onto the mountain there is this bloody great ice sheet, all green and evil looking just hanging there.

Mate that is spectucalar country.

Thanks for posting the photos. It's got me all excited. I just can't wait to get back to NZ later this year. Hell, we're lucky to have NZ and it's public land just over the ditch. And even luckerier that those bloody Kiwi's share it with us. You've got to hate them in the rugby but love them with their hunting and hospitality.

Once again thanks for sharing the photos!!

Rod