No visitor to Norfolk Island would miss the green hand symbol. One town block is covered in these symbols of opposition to what the locals see as the Australian Government’s takeover of Norfolk island in 2016. As far as they were concerned, Queen Victoria had given the Pitcairners Norfolk Island in perpetuity. The sign reads:…
I confess I never watched any of the several movies made about the Mutiny on the Bounty. But it is a fascinating story and is the fountainhead of today’s Norfolk Island population. In 1789, HMS Bounty was returning from Tahiti after a mission to collect breadfruit plants for transport to the West Indies. Tensions had…
One of the ‘organized’ items on our tour was an evening at Norfolk Island’s famous fish fry. We’d been before on a wonderful summer evening, gathering at Orn Da Cliff for the event. You’ll no doubt work out from the name that the site is high up on a cliff, facing west. The sunset on…
When I signed us up for this trip to Norfolk Island I suppose I had a fond notion that the advertised 200th anniversary was for the arrival of the Pitcairn descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty. Silly me. Elementary research would have shown me that 2025 was the anniversary of the establishment of Norfolk’s…
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…
On our last tour day at Yulara we were treated to a helicopter ride so we could see Uluru from the air. It stands out, a huge rock in a red desert, as though some God had plucked it out from somewhere else and placed it on the plain. Kata Tjuta looks like a pile…
Sunrise at Uluru at this time of year is around 6:30am. The Rock famously changes colour as the light grows in the eastern sky. It’s all part of the experience – but you have to get up well before sparrow fart to see the spectacle. We crawled out of bed at about 4:30 to be…
It was time to move on to Uluru. We checked out of the Crowne Plaza bright and early to board the buses for the long drive to the Rock. And it was raining! That’s a rare occurrence in this part of the world and although showers were inconvenient I wasn’t the only one hoping we…
We’d had a busy morning on our first day – Simpsons Gap, Standley Chasm, and the Desert Park. The afternoon was very different, with our visits in the town itself. Our first stop was at The Royal Flying Doctor Service. It has a small museum where visitors can read about the various pioneers of the…
The first day of our actual tour was very busy. Our group of fifty was divided into the reds and the yellows and each group set off in a bus big enough for everyone to have a window seat. Our driver, Roger, a knowledgeable Kiwi who’d been around the Red Centre for many years, was…