travellingbennetts

A birthday. A need to go somewhere we’d never been before. Talk of Broome, which was easily scotched given the late February/early March timing and the likelihood of +40°C days and rampant mange on the beach camels, but no obvious options appeared. Then we were watching the telly one Sunday afternoon, and the report was from Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island! Like Queensland, only it’s not Queensland! Booked, we were going.

Norfolk Island is an external territory of Australia. What that means is a little difficult to figure out on the ground, but basically Australia provides the immigration services, laws, immovable bureaucracy, services, language, schools, aged care, and a lot of the wines and beers. We left for Norfolk via the Brisbane International Terminal, we used our passports, but just a QLD driver’s licence is fine. Problem with this is that the Smart Gates are off-limits. We joined the queue to the Border Force representative with the dysfunctional families; 3 under 3, an infinite number of toys and child accoutrement, and a trail of detritus we intolerant travellers end up stumbling over.

A two hour flight later, we landed at the Norfolk Island airport. We had to fill out an Australia entry card and go through Border Force which was a bit weird – where had I boarded the flight? Australia. Which country had I spent most of my time in while overseas? Australia. Where was I staying in Australia? I put our home address in which caused confusion – where was I staying on Norfolk Island? I’ve forgotten, I’m with that lady. No worries then, off you go.

Onto the bus and off to the accommodation with a bunch of fun Kiwis, we had a quick view of the main town of Burnt Pine which is in the middle of the ~4km radius very roughly roundish but a bit deflated island. Our resort was very central to everything, and the rooms were excellent. Climate is a bit Queensland, a little humid and warm, the day we arrived had a top of 23°C and an overnight low of 23°C. That makes dressing easy. A work colleague had suggested that ½ an hour after arrival we’d run out of things to do, but not so. First thing after arrival was the Island Fish Fry, we’d booked this as it only happens twice a week and this would be our only chance. Out in the bus to the western side of the island, past about a billion Norfolk Island pines and bucolic scenery, we lobbed into the Fish Fry. Sitting and eating the excellent fish and some weird but delicious sweet potato dishes with a very interesting couple from Newcastle who’d been there a week, we learned the lay of the land and what there was to do. Heaps apparently. Walks, coffees, snorkelling, staring at cows, finding duty-free bottleshops and seeing how well stocked they were, discussing the lack of port facilities which kept our groceries sitting off the coast the whole time we were there, and the history.

We decided to hire a car the next day after our orientation tour, which we discovered to be essential if planning to get out of Burnt Pine and down to the coast. But we had noticed motorcycles and scooters about and saw hire electric scooters out the front of the Tourist Information hut. Righto, we’d better get those too. At one point we had more transport out the front of our room than we did at home, and we were within easy walking distance of all the licenced premises. The scooters for 24 hours were $50, and needed a motorcycle licence, hence were rarely hired. Getting them started was a lot more complicated than expected, mine just sat there with an alarm going off and drawing a big crowd. The key is in it and turned on, the side-stand is up, what more can I do? More alarming, more people drawn in to watch and make comments. Luckily the bloke in the Tourist Information hut had a revelation – you need to push the unlock button on the key fob, like you do when approaching your car and want to unlock the doors. Bingo. Alarming stopped, and off we went.

The controls are like a push bike with a motorcycle throttle, those who are used to a clutch had better get un-used to it and damn quickly, applying clutch rolling into a roundabout was found to lock up the back wheel, and not in a fun way. There were 2 modes – Eco and Power. Eco was good for about 30kmh and Power was good for 50. As the island maximum speed limit is 50, Power is suitable out in the countryside. Pulling away on steep hills was way beyond the capability of either mode, and even Power struggled on some hills transporting the larger party members, so care had to be taken with navigation.

Our first big trip was out to the eastern side of the island, although a big trip on Norfolk is like 15 minutes. Taking a wrong turn or two and going up a steep hill had mine travelling at 4kmh in Power and fully wound on by the time I got to the top, but eventually we got to Steele’s Point and stared out into the howling easterly that was preventing our groceries from landing. Some skidding practice and a bit of off-road showed that they weren’t completely hopeless, but with 21cm front wheels we weren’t going to try any creek crossings.

We did several history-related tours and checked out a couple of museums. The history is basically in three phases after Captain James Cook found it in 1774 – initial penal settlement 1788 to 1814 to support a struggling Sydney, a prison for naughty or just unlucky convicts from 1824 to 1856, and then the re-settlement of the “breeding like rabbits” Pitcairn Islanders from 1856. A common theme has plagued Norfolk development and settlement from the beginning – landing. By aeroplane it’s fine, we landed without incident under the pilotage of – wait for it, this is not a joke – Captain James Cook. But it is a lump of steep sided basalt poking up out of the ocean, so landing from the sea was and still is a big drama.

The big development and most of the history is associated with the prison period. Kingston was the main settlement and where the prison was. The reef out the front was the main source of stone, and some seriously impressive buildings were put up to store stuff and convicts and house their guards.

Obviously there was a need for a cemetery from the first settlement. An advantage for Norfolk is that the cemetery has never moved, it has just expanded. A rare thing about the Norfolk Cemetery is that some executed convicts got a headstone, and the earliest grave is back from the 1790’s.

Every afternoon we were there the tide got low. This was important, as snorkelling at high tide meant being smashed as the sea came over the outer reef. So we’d load the car with our stuff, and head to Emily Bay. The snorkelling was very good and just the bathing was very nice – sandy and incredibly clear, there is not much mud washing off Norfolk. A snorkelling highlight was finding a golf ball out in the reef, removing all the sea creatures, and depositing the clean ball about 3 feet from the pin on the 6^th. Hopefully the Norfolk Island golf club are still trying to figure that one out.

We spent some time in the Sirius Museum. You want me to say we siriusly spent time, but I won’t. A plan of the museum is to have a wall with all the First Fleet names on it, they are about 20% of the way there out of a total of 1,500 people. We checked out the database, and there was a Bennett. Naturally a John Bennett, which was the most popular Bennett name up until the JonBennett Ramsey incident. So we sponsored John, even though hopefully we weren’t actually related, he was hung in Sydney in May 1788 at age 19 after being unable to stop nicking stuff.

After 5 days and three big dinners to celebrate the big birthday, we were done. The mass of hire vehicles were returned, but the scooter electrics were not re-charged because we had no power point. A shortcoming of electric hire vehicles there. We arrived at the airport 2½ hours before departure because that’s what you do when travelling internationally. Even when the airport is way smaller than Mt Isa and we weren’t really travelling internationally. This was when the Norfolk Island tourist demographic came to light – we assumed the Platinum/Business/Gold line was for platinum/business/gold customers, so joined it. It was actually for physically challenged and a long way into dementia elderly people, so the economy people moved past us at pace while a deaf and blind unescorted octogenarian told shaggy dog stories to Qantas staff.

Into Brisbane with another bizarre immigration card, yes I’d been overseas but had never left Australia. Getting off was confirmation of the Norfolk Island tourist demographic – the wheelchairs were lined up like it was the 24 Hours at Le Mans race. But definitely not a running start. Regardless, we’d had a ball out on the island, everything was perfect, the multiple birthday restaurant meals were spectacular, and there are only three names in the phone book. But that’s another story.