Sounds like the Sunday option will work best. Will pack some extra food in case of deciding to carry on to do something longer on Sunday and stay out at a hut again. Could take half of Monday off, eg. to walk out from a hut to road end after an early start to get back to Wellington earlier. We could always do the Pukematawai-Arete-Dundas circuit and back to Manahao Flats hut Sunday night to keep it simple for getting back to the same road end as where we started.
Darren ap Dafydd (Welsh Rambler)