DAY 2 - NORFOLK ISLAND....

Day 2 – Sunday 5^th JANUARY 2020.

Our 40^th Wedding Anniversary today.  We had a nice sleep in this morning and then Steve made me breakfast…. A lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, which we enjoyed sitting out on our back patio.  

Whilst Steve cooked breakfast I went for a wander around the grounds to check out the other unit we stayed in when we were last here, and also take some photos of the grounds and our house for this stay.  We have yet again been so blessed with the upgrade to the house and a good size car…

Our home for the next ten days

Back of our house...

Our front patio

Our back enclosed eating area.

 The inside of our house looks like this...

Our room had a king size bed....

Spare bedroom

Another angle of the spare bedroom

Our shower

Main Kitchen and dining area

part of the common lounge

Another angle of the common lounge

Lounge, dining and kitchen areas....

Ian and Kathy's room

Book case area in Ian and Kathy's end of the house...

Ian and Kathy's room

 Beautiful flowering gardens...

 I also checked out the cottage we stayed in last time we were on Norfolk Island....

 After breakfast we decided to head into town to check out the Sunday markets,  we thought we might be able to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables.  We also thought we might pay a visit to the Information Centre to get a little information on Norfolk Island.

 On our way into town, we came across a couple of roadside stalls selling produce, so stopped off to check them out.  The first place we stopped out had some great produce and it was quite reasonably priced compared to the supermarket, so we ended up buying tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and some potatoes.  In total it cost us $11.

 

Side of the road produce stalls

Steve and Kathy picking out of some fresh produce for us..

As we came into town, we noticed another produce spot at Supa Suds Laundry.  They advertised that they had avocadoes for sale so once again we stopped to check them out.  They were $2 each, but there were only a couple that were any good,  the others were almost rotten, so we only bought one of them.  

Looking for avocados that weren't over ripe.

Whilst visiting the Laundromat we realized just how serious the drought conditions are on Norfolk as they had a sign which read “Laundry closed until rain”.  

They are desperate for rain on Norfolk Island...

From here we headed straight to the markets.  We parked in the main street and walked back towards the markets checking out a few different shops on the way. All except the eateries were closed as it was Sunday.

 

Two tone hibiscus bush in the main street....

 

The markets  were a little disappointing…

 There was no produce for sale at all, mostly it was just jewellery, woodwork, pottery, teatowels and the likes.  Probably not the sort of stuff tourists would buy, especially if they were coming from Australia as the jewellery was quite old fashion and behind the times.

Live Music... this guy sang a beautiful rendition of "How Great Thou Art"

The Tourist Information Centre was situated right next to the Markets so we headed in there and got a hand full of brochures so that we could plan our week.  We all picked up some postcards to send home to our grandchildren. 

Bakery where we bought morning tea..

 One our way back to the car we passed the "Field of Democracy" in Burnt Pine. 
This patch of grass contains a trove of green hands, each signed by a Norfolk Islander threatened by the Australian Government's actions in taking over control of the island. 

Norfolk Island is battling to save its democratic rights after the Australian Government abolished the Island’s Legislative Assembly in June 2015 and announced its intention to take over Norfolk Island’s governance, economy and infrastructure on 1 July 2016.

The indigenous people - many of them direct descendants of the famous mutineers on the Bounty - are looking to raise a significant sum of money to fund a petition to the United Nations to be accorded protective rights as a Non-Self-Governing Territory. This will allow the community of less than 2000 people to determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural stability and development.

"Field of Democracy"  -  Burnt Pine.

We probably wandered around the markets for a good hour or more before heading back to the car via the bakery were we bought a couple of buns to share for morning tea.  We also wanted to duck back into the supermarket to pick up some matches as we were nearly out back at the house.  We sat on park benches there and enjoyed our morning tea. 

Norfolk Mall - where you do your grocery shopping....

Enjoying morning tea

The Bowling Club where we had dinner the previous evening..

Rather than head straight home we decided to go a scenic way home via Kingston, past the cemetery, over the Bloody Bridge and head to Cassade Pier and check out the east side of the coastline….

Remnants from the old whaling station

Cascade Pier

There has been a million dollar upgrade to the pier since we were last here.  In the future they are hoping to have some of the big cruise ships visit, but the existing pier made it difficult to bring tourists ashore on the island.  

Fishermen feed the sharks with their scraps

When we got there, there were several fishermen back in from a mornings fishing and they were filleting their catch on the pier and throwing the scraps over board and feeding the sharks.  It was fascinating to watch.  There would have been somewhere between 20-30 sharks feeding there ranging in size from 2-3metres.  We think they were mainly bronze whaler sharks, and grey nurse sharks, with maybe a tiger shark or two as well.  

We stood watching this and photographing this for quite some time and also as we were about to leave, a boat came back in from a mornings fishing.  That then delayed our leaving as we stood and watched them bring the boat ashore… 

 They definitely have a different way of doing things on Norfolk Island.  They winch the boat out of the water using a crane.  The way this works is that you hook the cable to the back of your car and lower the crane hook down towards the water.  The person In the boat, hooks up all the anchor points to the crane and then the car drives down the pier thus pulling the boat up out of the water.  Once it reaches the pier, the skipper of the boat climbs out and then swings the boat around and lines it up with the boat trailer before they gently lower the boat onto the trailer.  A very smooth operation and you can see they are well practiced at doing it, as it took no time at all for the operation to be completed.

Views of Norfolk Island from Mt. Pitt.

  As it was a beautiful clear day today, we decided to head up to Mt Pitt (one of the highest points on the Island) to see the outstanding views, and give Ian and Kathy a good look at the Island and for them to get their bearings on where everything is.  The view were splendid and the grass up there was very green.  Think it might be a nice place to come back late one afternoon to have a wine and cheese and just enjoy the view once again…

Whilst up here, we met a lovely couple from Mackay, and enjoyed a lovely chat with them.  They filled us in on where to buy good quality fruit whist on Norfolk Island.  We left them to head home for lunch as it was almost 1pm by now…

Chatting to a lovely couple from Mackay back in Qld.

It was after 1pm when we got home, we were all hungry, and were quite eager to make ourselves a nice salad for lunch using some of the fresh farm produce that we had just bought.    We ended up enjoying our lunch sitting on our front patio this time, again enjoying the peace and serenity that this place offers.

Lunch on the front patio

Not sure whether it is all the sunshine and fresh sea air, but we were all feeling pretty tired after lunch and all enjoyed a nanna nap.

We spent the afternoon just hanging out at home and all got back together for a cuppa around 5pm to decide where we would go for dinner to celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary.  Lots of places on the island are closed on a Sunday evening.  We were hoping to go to Dino’s but there are closed now until Wednesday, so we had to rethink our plans.  In the end we decided to go to Castaways from lunch as Marguerite had given it a good wrap the day before.

Dressed to go out for dinner for our 40th Wedding Anniversary

 Castaways was back in town but had wonderful views overlooking a valley.  It was still quite light when we got there so we decided to set up out on the deck where we could enjoy the view.... 

A patch of sunflowers in the carpark..

They were massive sunflowers.....

 Views from the deck of Castaways where we had dinner to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary..

Castaways was a good choice, we ended being seated on the deck for dinner.  We had some outstanding views over the valley and hillsides.  The food was excellent.  Steve and I shared both an entrée and main meal.  We had a prawn cocktail for entrée.  8 large prawns with a delicious homemade sauce sprinkled with fennel seeds.  The entrée was $15. For the main meal we had the Chicken Pebo which was a chicken breast filled with diced raisins and peanuts in a peanut cream sauce.  This was served with beautifully crunchy smashed potatoes and a lovely fresh garden salad with a nice dressing.  The cost of this main was $38.  

Steve and I shared the Chicken Pebo 

Kathy chose the Mediterranean Lamb Salad which consisted of marinated lamb rump served with a roast vegetable cous cous and tzatziki along with the fresh garden salad.  It also looks pretty good and she was very happy with her choice.  The cost of her meal was $36.

Kathy's meal

We all shared the salad

Finally, Ian chose the Pan Fried Trumpeter, locally caught trumpeter fish pan fried and served with fresh rocket, tomato and hollandaise sauce and also served with fresh garden salad.  The fish was to die for, so sweet and tender and one we would all be happy to order again.  We all enjoyed our meals immensely.  Ian’s meal was $35.  

Ian's meal of Pan fried trumpeter

Apparently on a Wednesday and Friday evenings they have a special wood fired Pizza menu, so we are all pretty keen to try this sometime this week.

We enjoyed a lovely evening, just sitting on the deck, enjoying good conversations, good food and feeling blessed to be able to enjoy our time together.

We headed back to our home around 9pm where we enjoyed a cuppa together, looked at some of the activities we might be able to do this week, watched the evening news before retiring for bed.  Another lovely day in Paradise….