The group you’re in when you’re not in a group

Norfolk Island. It’s a speck in the South Pacific about 1,600 km east of Sydney. At about 8km long and 5km wide, the island is an erosional remnant of a once-larger volcanic structure sticking out of the sea. It enjoys a sub-tropical Goldilocks climate, beautiful scenery and a laid-back lifestyle. Perfect for a week of doing bugger all after a hectic half year in the new home.

We’d been to Norfolk before, once with a jam-packed group tour over Christmas, and then again, also over Christmas 2018, when we hired a car and visited the bits we missed last time.

But as I browsed social media I came across an offer for a trip to Norfolk in June, coinciding with the two hundredth anniversary of settlement. Norfolk was ‘discovered’ and settled (by Europeans) at the same time as Australia’s east coast, so this was an opportunity to enjoy an island celebration. The package included flights, accommodation for a week, a car, airport transfers, several meals, entry to a few attractions, and the opportunity to witness Bounty Day, when the Islanders re-enact the arrival of their ancestors from Pitcairn Island. And it wasn’t expensive. We were even prepared to sit down the back for the two-and-a-half-hour flight.

So it was sort of organised. But it wasn’t. We were part of an informal group booking. Eighteen arrived from Brisbane on Tuesday, twenty-six from Sydney on Wednesday but everybody was basically left to get on with it. There was no tour leader. Instead, everybody had a handful of vouchers (printed at home, by us) to use on the ‘organized’ parts of the visit. We’d turn up to catch a bus for a tour and mill around looking at each other. Nobody had a name tag. Tour operators would ask us if we belonged to a group and we’d look at each other and say ‘I suppose’. It was as hard for the tour operators as it was for us but we all managed. Eventually we called ourselves the “disorganized group”.

When we’d visited the island before it had been on an Air New Zealand flight. The route is now flown by Qantas. Planes fly from Brisbane on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday from Sydney. It really is a very isolated place. The airport was built by the Americans during World War II, when the island was strategically important. Although Norfolk is an Australian territory, you fly there from the international terminal. You don’t have to show your passport but you do need photo id like a driver’s licence. Passports are easy but the face recognition software hasn’t been programmed for territories so passing through immigration requires somebody to yell across the queues, “Norfolk? Come this way, please.” (AI hasn’t taken over everything yet.)

Norfolk Island lives on tourism and not much else so the islanders are always happy to welcome us. But we brought something very special with us this time – rain. The island has been in drought for three years. It is reliant on water falling from the sky. There’s no dam or reservoir, although there is a small desalination plant. New houses on Norfolk must have a roof area of a minimum size and water tanks. I reckon the tanks were full after out first night on the island. The latest storm in NSW followed us across the ocean and lightninged and thundered and threw down a deluge. It rained several times during the rest of our stay but we also had some lovely weather.

Of course we had a snafu. What holiday is complete without at least one minor complication? Peter had left some of his prescription medication at home. We found the pharmacy and asked if he could do without it for a week. That wasn’t a good idea and we didn’t have a script. But Norfolk Islanders are nothing if not resourceful and the pharmacist came up with a resolution. The people on Norfolk are great. And very laid back. There are no traffic lights and only a few stop signs. There aren’t even any street lights. Island time rules. Shops don’t open until at least 9:30 and many close around 3:30. Most shops are closed on Wednesday afternoon. All except the local supermarket. It’s open every day from around 9am – 6pm.

Norfolk is a lovely island. There’s a picturesque view around every corner and there are a lot them. If you’re not driving up a hill you’re going down a valley. Many of the roads are kind of a series of mostly filled pot holes joined loosley together. But that’s okay. You can’t go very fast – and it’s a hire car. Here’s a little video I took to give you a taste.

Really, the only flat land is around Kingston – the site of the penal colony – and the area around Emily Bay.

This is a view from the hill overlooking Kingston. The Georgian houses in the picture were built by convicts using local stone, some quarried at the closest offshore island, Nepean. The land down there is a golf course now. I expect it used to be farmland.

Most of the rest of Norfolk’s coastline is a bit like this.

The island doesn’t have a harbour. There are two piers where goods are landed and which of them is used depends on the sea – which side of the island it’s calmer. Sometimes it isn’t. Freighters have been known to wait off shore for days, even weeks, to land their goods using lighters and barges. That includes buses and trucks, balanced precariously for the journey to the pier where the crane lifts them off. But don’t worry (we were told) nobody on Norfolk is going to starve. They produce plenty of their own food. But people might have to go without potato crisps, or even cheese if the boats can’t get in. Did I mention the place is isolated?

There are no boat ramps, either. Fishing is a popular pastime on those days when the ocean cooperates. The boats are launched and retrieved by crane. This one is at the Cascade pier on what was an incredibly calm day. Other times waves can reach higher than the height of that crane.

One very special thing happened on this trip, though. I went on holiday without my Canon! I tried out my brand new mobile phone’s camera and I tell all here.

That’ll do for now. Next time I’ll talk a bit about the 200th anniversary.

This is the first post for this trip. If you missed anything, pick up the whole journey here.