Party: Anna, Elizabeth, Lesley
Map: http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/trck36182/Simla-Track/
Distance: 11 km? and have we now nearly walked the whole of the Hillary Trail?
Elevation: Plenty
Time: 4 hours and 25 minutes, with a couple of stops
Notes: Some weird and wonderful things:
1. After years of encountering only wildlife and the odd hunter, we encounter an entire film set, with catering vans, four-wheel drives, trucks, generators etc.
2. Our dedicated mycologist decapitates an unusual pale blue fungus, possibly Weraroa. We are shocked.
3. We discover an old University Tramping hut, just off the track. It has some fantastic stolen road signs.
4. We laugh smugly at the cautionary sign, 'experienced trampers only', then spend the next hour destroying all the muscle fibres in our legs going down Simla swinging from trees and sliding in mud. There are 30 seconds of relief at the bottom of this 'slope' when we cross a small stream which was part of an old kauri dam (you can see the notch in the bank where the beam slotted in) before...
5. We repeat the same going up Sisam.
6. We are twice (twice!) given the call that the car is imminent...only it's not.
7. Not that we are in a hurry to finish, it's just that our legs are.
8. We see a great range of small birds, and surely the George Clooney of woodpigeons. See below for talent portfolio.
9. We retire to Little Sister Cafe and share a Louise Cake Slice which is Out of this World.
