will answer my own question
the way up took roughly 4.3hrs. We did get lost at 2 points and a had a half an hr stop for a friend to address a few blisters.
we stayed along the king hut basin road. As 4wd tracks go it was very timid. I only engaged 4wd just to cross a couple of river crossings. we stayed at the site just before king hut.
we walked to king hut, then jumped onto the king hut track. there is a turn off which is very clear but this isnt the turn off on the map (used rooftops). this went to a dead end. So anyone walking do turn off. We then met up to the original track and continued along. The actual fork to take off to meet up with circuit rd (closer to craigs hut) is posted with a sign saying "road closed" It is an over grown walking track but is marked throughout with blue ribbon. Still its a bit hard to follow. (we also got lost on this track. we did put a ribbon on a tree to help fellow walkers.) We then made our way along circuit road which is flat and then up the 4wd track to craigs hut. You can see if from the track to gauge how far it is. It does drop and then climb steeply to the car park.
craigs hut... its as good or even better than the photos suggest imo. It was a perfect clear day and views all along.
the walk back to around 2.5hrs as we had to amp up the speed as we were running out of day light and as we had to cross a few rivers we didnt want to do it at night.
the drive back into town we took weston track... this was quiet rough and steep in places. This isnt well documented on the map and we were quite lost in places. carters rd was also closed so we opted to take no.3 road. This ended up being a brilliant idea as u get an awesome view of everything. All the dead trees and the height was a view to see. We also went to check out burnt hut knob but we were short of time due to the slight detour. We stopped at refuge hut no.3 which looked brand new. We then headed straight for the mt buller car park area to air up and get ready for the haul back to town.
pics!!