Saturday 27 October 2012

Norfolk Island Odyssey

some enjoyable NI signage

Today I flew with my parents, sister and her husband to Norfolk Island. The island is about 2 hours east of Brisbane and is regarded as an external territory of Australia so you need your passport to visit it even if you are coming from the mainland. I’m not completely aufait with Norfolk Island’s history (I shall endeavour to improve my lack in this department over the coming days) but I do know that Captain Cook discovered it in the late 1700s; it has an indigenous population which includes descendants of the Bounty mutineers; it was once a rather nasty penal settlement; and, it has a plethora of feral hens. My mother has been visiting the island for over 20 years (this is her tenth visit) and she has always threatened to take me...so here I am.


I am pleased to report that the Australian Border Security folk at the airport were at their perkiest today on the way to Norfolk as I got personally scanned, had a pat down and then got invited in for an explosives test,where I cheerfully informed them I was heading to ‘that terrorist hub, Norfolk Island.’ I shall never wear a skirt with an in-built studded belt again!  Still they let me through and I did my bit for Norfolk border security at the other end when I found an abandoned blue backpack in the ladies toilet. I informed a very friendly local policeman who asked me to retrieve it from the toilet (what with my bare hands!!! Persicoloso!!!) whereupon he went hunting among the 100 other silver-haired lady passengers until he found its rightful owner. (I believe I was the veritable spring chicken on the flight over.) My job done at the airport (the policeman fast-tracked us out as a thank you) I headed with my parents to Aloha - Hibiscus Apartments in the main drag of Burnt Pine.
We passed the afternoon taking in some of the sights of the island, mainly Emily Bay, which I shall enchant you with pictures  below. The sea was actually quite rough down by the bay but it was very beautiful and rugged and if I was a feral hen I would probably choose to live here too...I’d stay away from the rams though! Heh Heh.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh heh ... any sign of Sergeant Brody in the terrorist hub?!

Joanna said...

:-( no such luck - doesn't appear to be much ginger in the gene pool here.