AND SO OUR HOLIDAY BEGINS - DAY 1 - NORFOLK ISLAND.....

DAY 1 – 4^TH JANUARY 2020.

As we had an early start this morning to get to the airport to catch our flight to Norfolk Island, we spent our last night in Brisbane with Ian and Kathy as their son in law Justin was picking us all up at 7.30am to take us to the International airport.

What a contrast to this time last year when we were all rugged up in our snow jackets in the freezing cold in Iceland.  Today the boys were wearing their bright Island shirts to head of to an island in the sun. 

 

We arrived at the airport a little before 8am, a good 20 minutes early to check in for our flight to Norfolk Island.  As we went to check our luggage in and get our flight allocations, we were informed that we may not be flying yet as they may need to carry extra fuel to Norfolk Island due to weather conditions, and in that case they would have to offload passengers and we four along with 11 others were chosen to be off  loaded.

Our bags were all weighed and tagged but we needed to hold them with us until just after 9am when they would let us know whether we would be flying today or whether we would need to wait and catch the next flight (which didn’t leave until Tuesday).  There were some very UNHAPPY passengers.  

They informed us that if we were kicked off this particular flight they would reimburse each of us  $300 and we would be on the next available flight, but we were not amused at all considering we had booked our flights a good 10 months earlier and had paid for them.

I also asked them about our accommodation on Norfolk Island and who was going to reimburse us for that if we didn’t make the flight.  I was informed that  we could claim that on our travel insurance…

.

Enjoying our morning tea compliments from Air New Zealand Airlines

They did give us all a $10voucher each to go and have a cup of coffee or a meal with whilst we waited.   As we were buying our drinks, and handed in our voucher, the waitress asked if we were going to Norfolk Island.  We answered yes and she told us this was a regular occurrence and happened every Saturday flight.  She also informed us that mostly we all got onto the flight   Still it didn’t sweeten the sour taste we all felt when first told we might not be flying…

We were told by 9.20am that we would all be flying and then it was a bit of a rush getting through Immigration to leave the country.  

We finally board our flight.  It wasn’t a huge plane.  3 seats on either side of the aisle.  I was seated with Ian and Kathy and Steve was across the aisle from me.  The flight was good.  I was so excited, first time in a long time that I have been able to fly without having to ask for an extension for my seat belt.  It was one of my goals I had when I started to loose weight, so I was pretty excite to be able to cross that little goal off my list….

Inservice was pretty good until it was meal time…  we missed out.  No food for us, just a cup of tea… People were served all around us,  and we didn’t understand why we got nothing except a cup of tea.  We were feeling pretty peckish as we hadn’t eaten since around 8.30am.  Dampened the flight a little.

Steve did inquire about it as we were disembarking the flight and was told by one of the stewards that we should have booked a meal and paid for it when booking our flights.  We didn’t know about this at all.  

 

Landed on Norfolk Island

The flight over was good, very smooth, and took around 2 hours and 5 minutes.  Norfolk Island is two hours ahead of us back home.

Getting through Customs in Norfolk was pretty painless and as we walked out into the terminal, one of the airport staff asked us where we were staying and pointed us in the direction of Marguerite (who was organising our vehicle and payment of our stay at Anson Bay Lodge).  

 

Our car on Norfolk Island for the week...

We were in for a surprise as we had quite a good size car which comfortably took us all and all our luggage.  Much different to last time we were here and the small cars that were available then.  Our car this time was a Silver Toyota Markz Z10.  

When we booked our accommodation at Anson Bay earlier in the year, we booked a little two bedroom cottage as it was quite  a bit cheaper that the three bedroom ones, but on arrival, we found that Wayne (the owner whom we had  bit to do with 15 years ago when we were here) had upgraded us to the three bedroom house.  Bonus….. A lot more room, two of the bedrooms had king size beds, two bathroom, so it was like both couples had their own private areas with a joint living area and kitchen joining us together…  Way better than our booking and no extra charge….`

Flowers in our house to welcome us....

Whilst Marguerite was booking us in she told us that one of the ships unloading supplies to Norfolk Island was sitting off shore from Kingston Pier and it was worth going down and having a look at the way they bring things ashore,…

By now it was 4pm and we knew we had to head down to Foodworks to at least get a few groceries to get us through the following 24 hours.

We managed to get back into Burnt Pine, the central town district and hit the shops.  Most shows were closed being a Saturday afternoon.  (Weekends are like they used to be in Australia 30-40 years ago, half day of trading on a Saturday and Sunday is still a day or rest on the Island) 

Food is very expensive on the Island and not a lot of variety.  Fresh fruit and vegetables are very scarce and even more so this time around as they have had a drought on Norfolk Island as well.  Not fresh fruit and vegetables are imported in.  They are all grown on the island, and we were told today if we wanted any at all we need to be In the store first thing Monday morning as they all go pretty quickly.  Eggs were over $7 a dozen, 500g block of Colby cheese was almost $10 honey was over $4 for 150gms.  We spent $154 with very little to show for it….

Kingston Pier

Convict Ruins at Kingston

Emily Bay

Looking out to Nepean Island...

Emily Bay

Our car at Emily Bay

Looking across Emily Bay to the Salt House..

 After getting the few groceries we needed to headed down to Kingston Pier to see if we could see the ship but it had gone, so we drove Ian and Kathy past the Convict Ruins around to Emily Bay for a look, and then headed back to Anson Bay along the western coast road. 

Beautiful Anson Bay

Cows wandering around the headlands near Anson Bay.

We were pretty hungry as we hadn’t eaten since earlier this morning, so we unloaded our food, put the cold stuff in the fridge and headed back into town to the Bowls Club for dinner..   

Dinner at the Bowls Club on Norfolk Island..

What a meal.. so wish that I had taken photos of it.  Thankfully Steve and I shared a meal because they were huge.  Average price for meals was $25 but that would feed two of you. Ian and Kathy bought a meal each but we will know that in future one meal between two is sufficient.  The meal was lovely.  Seafood was freshly caught and cooked and was so tender.  We will be back.

It was after 9pm by the time we got home and we still needed to unpack our suitcases.  We decided that since we are staying for 10 days, that we would completely unpack our bags and hang our clothes and put them in drawers.

Once this was done, we were too tired to do anything other than have a cuppa all together and then head to bed.